The new law to stop anyone who has killed a partner or ex-partner with whom they have children from gaining parental rights will be introduced by the end of this year. The measures will be known as ‘Jade’s law’, after Jade Ward, who was stabbed and strangled by her partner in 2021 as their four children were sleeping.
What is Jade’s Law?
Under the current law, parental responsibility is still retained when one parent murders the other, and that parent needs to be consulted on decisions affecting their children, such as health, education and travel.
The new law will be named after Jade Ward, who was killed by her partner, Russell Marsh, in 2021. Despite being sent to prison, Marsh still attempted to control his children from behind bars and retained the right to request his children’s progress reports and medical details. He could even block them from getting therapy and travelling abroad, even though he had been found guilty of murdering their mother. Ward’s parents, who have been caring for the children, have campaigned tirelessly to change the law after Marsh’s continued part in the decisions relating to the four children inflicted further trauma on them and the children.
When Will it Apply?
Under the new proposals, parental responsibility will be suspended while any mother or father is serving time for killing the person with whom they shared that responsibility. This will apply to anyone convicted of murder or voluntary manslaughter and would then swiftly be reviewed by a judge to ensure it is in the child's best interests. An automatic exemption would apply to parents who are victims of domestic abuse.
The measures will be presented to parliament as part of the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
Additional Updates
The government is also to ban sex offenders from changing their personal details.
The government has also announced plans to place a lifetime ban on sex offenders changing their name and gender, in an attempt to close a loophole that allows criminals to evade the sex offender register. Although it is currently illegal for registered sex offenders to change their name without informing the police within three days, data indicates that more than 16,000 registered sex offenders changed their personal details without telling the police between 2015 and 2020. In the worst cases, individuals barred for life from working with children changed their names and used their new names to gain employment in schools and homes where they committed further offences.
Going forward, details from other government agencies including HMRC, Department of Work and Pensions, HM Passport and DVLA will be merged with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). An attempt to change a known sex offender’s details on any of those government agencies will result in the DBS being alerted and the individual in question being prosecuted.
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