Criminals ‘use courts to terrorise victims’

Campaigners are calling for changes in the courts process and tougher harassment laws after a dossier of 33 cases showed offenders are using the system to interfere with victims.

Vexatious child access claims are being made by rapists and abusers who have previously shown no interest in their offspring.

Cases included in the dossier published by Napo, the trade union for family court and probation staff, and Protection Against Stalking include a paedophile applying for contact with his children, despite having taken indecent pictures of them.

Several cases of convicts who had killed their partners applying for contact with their offspring “even though the children were terrified and fully aware of the murders”.

“In virtually all cases the children do not want to see the perpetrators for the foreseeable future,” the report adds.

Stalking crime is “not fully understood” by criminal justice professionals and there is “urgent need for law reform, revision of sentencing guidelines and proper mandatory training for relevant staff” including family court judges, it adds.

Harry Fletcher, Napo assistant general secretary, said the research highlighted the need to stop abuses of court processes.

“It is outrageous that in the past perpetrators of child abuse, murder and rape were given legal aid to continue to torment their victims through the family courts.

It is crucial that these vexatious applications be struck out.”

Among suggested solutions was for judges to remove criminals’ parental rights during sentencing.