Rights of sex offenders to have contact with their own kids to be reviewed (Scotland)

5 replies

IwantToRetire · 13/09/2026 21:58

Survivors and campaigners have welcomed the news that the Scottish Government will review laws relating to parental rights and responsibilities of people convicted of serious sexual and violent offences.

At the moment some parents who have been convicted of serious crimes, including sex offences, can still maintain or pursue contact with their own children.

The review, communicated by Minister for Victims and Community Safety Kirsten Oswald to Graeme Downie MP, follows, a sustained campaign led by survivors, alongside Scottish Women's Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland.

Full article here https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rights-sex-offenders-contact-kids-37649912

Rights of sex offenders to have contact with their own kids to be reviewed

"It should never be OK that a convicted child sex offender should have an automatic right to contact with their child."

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rights-sex-offenders-contact-kids-37649912

OP posts:

AmnesiacsDream · 14/09/2026 01:50

It beggars belief that it's taken this long for this to come to the attention of law makers.

Igmum · 14/09/2026 12:43

Agree Amnesiac and thanks for sharing Retire. Having been through the Family Courts as a domestic violence victim it baffles me that behaviour that would be severely punished if committed by the man on the Clapham omnibus is considered fine if the perpetrator is the father.

Original poster

IwantToRetire · 14/09/2026 17:12

Sadly I think it is still as it always has been, those taking decision just have no awareness of, respect for women and how women's lives and negatively impacted by all these people taking decisions without any awareness or thought of women.

OP posts:

JazzyJelly · 14/09/2026 18:06

I'm horrified to learn they can have access at the moment! Surely that's just basic safeguarding?

AmnesiacsDream · 15/09/2026 03:05

In England, parliament has finally decided to remove the presumption that contact is good for children in family court. I think it's too much to hope that judges will all feel able to really consider the children's best interests without letting the father's "right" to see their children have significant sway, but I hope it will help some children who spend miserable weekends with a vindictive parent and women who are revictimized by controlling men through the courts.

Maybe Scotland will follow suit with this too (or do they not have a presumption? I'm not clear on the differences between family courts in the two countries).

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