Sammy Woodhouse was raped as a teenager and gave birth to her son aged fifteen - but the baby's father was only jailed in 2016 A ...
Sammy Woodhouse was raped as a teenager and gave birth to her son aged fifteen - but the baby's father was only jailed in 2016
A Rotherham grooming gang victim has hit out after her rapist was offered parental access to her son born as a result of the crime.
Sammy Woodhouse was "extremely distressed" when she found out Arshid Hussain, who groomed, raped and impregnated her when she was a teenager, was offered a chance to be in her son's future.
Hussain was the ringleader of a notorious child grooming gang which operated in Rotherham.
Following a front page story in The Times today, which did not identify the family to protect the child, Sammy Woodhouse posted a video on YouTube waiving her anonymity and identifying herself as the rape victim.
She said: "This story is actually about myself, about my son and about the man that raped me and the fact that Rotherham Council have offered him to apply for parental rights over my child even though proven in a court of law - he was sentenced to 35 years - that he was a danger to myself and other children.
"I've also been able to prove that he's a direct harm towards my son.
"This is happening all over the country and it needs to stop. Children are being given to rapists and murderers for their families to have access.
"Rape victims are having to go to support centres to share access to see the men that raped them.
"Myself and MP Louise Haigh are calling on government to change a law the 1989 children act to ensure rapists can't gain access to children conceived through rape and abuse and I'm asking the public to join the campaign.
"People, women and children are being put at direct risk."
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "This is obviously a very distressing incident and the relevant departments and local authority will work urgently to understand and address the failings in this case.
"Local authorities can apply to courts to request permission not to notify parents without parental responsibility about care proceedings, and courts should consider the potential harm to the child and mother when making this decision."
Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years after being convicted of raping Ms Woodhouse and assaulting young girls
Hussain was not named on the boy's birth certificate and he and the victim were never married, but he was named as a "respondent".
The child's case was heard by a family court judge last year.
Councils are required by law to give notice of proceedings to all "respondents" in a case, including those with parental responsibility.
Louise Haigh, the shadow police and crime minister, hit out at the council's decision as “appallingly insensitive”, saying it was an invitation to "retraumatise" the victim.
She said no man who has fathered a child through abuse or rape should be allowed to apply for custody or visitation rights in the family courts.
The victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, described it as “a perverse situation” where the victim would have been abused by her attacker through the family courts.
A Rotherham Council spokesman said: “Councils are not allowed to disclose information relating to proceedings heard in private in the Family Court.
"Like all councils we must comply with legal requirements, including Practice Directions, and that would include giving notice of proceedings to parents with or without formal parental responsibility.
"Often and understandably, cases before the family court are emotive and arouse strong feelings amongst those affected.
"We do understand that the legal requirements can cause upset to those involved and so we welcome a debate around this issue, which applies across England and Wales."