Unsupervised contact

[Worried21]

Hi, Please can someone help?
My grandaughter is currently a child in need, living with her mother. Her father was arrested for messaging online about abusing children. No charges were brought by police....this I believe was due to errors made in the investigation, in that police did not remove all devices from the home. To cut along story short, dad currently has supervised contact. He is requesting unsupervised contact. This is something that I'm struggling to come to terms with how this would even be considered. One of his messages online was "inviting men around to his home to abuse his daughter" others included him " saying that he looked at his daughters friend in a sexual way". How can a man be allowed to be alone with a child in these circumstances?

Please help?

[KatKat10]

Hi Worried21, it does sound very concerning. If the police have investigated and not charged him, is it possible that those messages could have been sent by another person who had access to his device? Or it could be a weak investigation by the police as you say, not all devices were removed from the home, he passed it off as banter etc. Police need hard evidence to convict or take to court.

[Worried21]

Hi, no he admitted sending the messages to police, social workers and myself.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Worried21

Welcome to the parents' discussion board and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear that you are so worried about your granddaughter. I will provide some advice and information here that I hope will be helpful to you. If you have any further queries though, as you are a grandparent, please post on our kinship carers forum. You can get advice from other relatives there as well as from me.

You have explained the concerns about your granddaughter’s father. He has admitted to sending online messages about sexual abuse of children. These messages have referred to his own child and a friend’s child. However, this has not resulted in a criminal prosecution or conviction. You believe there were significant flaws in the police investigation. You might want to consider making a complaint about this. You can find out more about how to do this here.

There is a child in need plan for your granddaughter. The social worker is aware of all the concerns. At present, your granddaughter’s father has supervised contact with her. He is now asking that this be unsupervised. Just because he is asking to see his daughter without supervision does not mean that this will be agreed. If he is on your granddaughter’s birth certificate he has parental responsibility for her so can seek to exercise this. However, children’s services will likely still have concerns about the risk he may pose to your granddaughter. In fact, the lack of a criminal conviction does not mean that there are no concerns. So children’s services may make further recommendations around supervised contact and may escalate to child protection if necessary to keep your granddaughter safe.
If you are unhappy with children’s services’ response to your granddaughter’s situation, you can consider making a complaint.

In addition, if the child’s mother is not in agreement with the child’s father having unsupervised contact she should get some private law advice about this. If she is concerned for her daughter’s safety she could consider applying for a prohibited steps order (to prevent father doing something) or a Child Arrangements Order (CAO) to ensure that the child remains with her. Either parent can ask the family court to decide the arrangements for contact. She would explain why it should be supervised.

Children’s services or the court may require a further risk assessment or specialist assessment of your granddaughter’s father to be carried out to make decisions around future contact.

The following information and resources may be helpful to you:

• Child in need procedures
• Child protection procedures
• Complaints
• Sexual abuse

Child Law Advice (for legal advice about making arrangements for children)
Parents Protect
Stop it Now
NSPCC.

I hope this helps. Please post again (on the kinship carers’ forum) if you have a further query or call our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366, Mon to Fri, 9,30 am to 3..00 pm (except bank holidays).

Best wishes

Suzie

[KatKat10]

Hi Worried21, it does sound very concerning. If the police have investigated and not charged him, is it possible that those messages could have been sent by another person who had access to his device? Or it could be a weak investigation by the police as you say, not all devices were removed from the home, he passed it off as banter etc. Police need hard evidence to convict or take to court.

That is a concern and you are right to worry about unsupervised contact. It's a red flag.