That this decision by Rotherham Council is unbelievable!

[mothertruck3r]

Well, not really unbelievable in this era of craziness but make me furious. It seems like the girls who were victims of these gangs still don't have any value (judging by the subsequent treatment by the Council) and their emotional and physical wellbeing is completely dismissed so that a rapist can see his child. What were Rotherham Council thinking!!??

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-46368991

@BlancheM

I am no fan of TR far from it, but they were initially set up because of the epidemic going on, remember the "muslamic ray guns" that everyone was falling over themselves to laugh at, myself included, turns out taking the piss out a drunk working class kid with a speach impediment talking about muslim rape gangs hasn't aged well. Also remember the UAF organising marches because of the claims of TR et al saying that talk of the now known epidemic was racist within itself?

There is a lot of revisionism that goes on with regards to places like Rotherham etc, hence why we are in the shit show of situation we are now were TR is practically a millionaire from Peatron etc

He's not just a rapist tho is he? Lots of children are conceived through rape unfortunately, sometimes the mother is married (and may stay married) to him. It's a dodgy area, I know of a case where a young person was placed with mums killer and his family after he came out of prison.
However in this case the victim was not an adult so it was child abuse, social services have not thought properly or had bad legal advice.

This thread should go into classics labelled "an example of ignorance".

Surely the issues here are separate though.

There is no question that the law needs to be looked at in order to ensure that this cannot happen. The very idea that this law exists is something which needs scrutinising to the maximum in order that it not happen again.

However, this man has not made any kind of application to see his child, that has been made very clear. And meanwhile this child is at the centre of care proceedings which are confidential as per the family courts, so while the mother is being haled as brave for speaking out against the law, she herself is at the centre of a situation where her child is being removed from her care?

It sounds as if everyone has let this child down spectacularly.

user Rotherham Council could have applied to Court for permission NOT to notify the rapist

Reportedly it would be standard in most cases to do so,
but Rotherham Council chose not to even try

... continuing their evil deliberate neglect of their duties towards several hundred child rape victims
and to the resulting children

Tommy Robinson gets more fans every day from his greatest PR assets - the disgraceful Rotherham Council and their apologists

If you are really from his PR company in rl, then you are doing a brilliant job in making that arsehole look good

Queef, I'd be calling 999 rather than 101.not sure if that will change the outcome :(

"Username12345

YABU

The crime was against her for which he's being punished.
His child has a right to know their father - and he has a right to know his child."

He is a child rapist. If he gets to know his child that child will likely be raped.

The council told him he could apply for contact, which is the truth @Oratorio No they didn't and it isn't. They told him there were court proceedings and he has no right to be involved. If he wanted to be involved he would have to make an application. Get informed before you

Whatever law, councillor, social worker, who thinks it’s a good idea to let a convicted child rapist have a say in a child’s future needs all the attacking possible. @Surferjet - get informed before you criticise. Absolutely no one has suggested this would be a good idea. But then again the truth gets in the way of a good rant doesn't it?

@Sarahjconnor The cases you mention I'd wager are not real. Whilst allegations of the type you mention are made in court on a regular basis, I would bet everything I have that the court found the allegations to be untrue.

@BonnieF
Congratulations for peddling the lies and racist rhetoric of the far right. Your post is appalling and I have reported it.

It's not standard in most cases- notice that the family lawyers commenting are saying different things about whether it's usual. If it were that standard, they wouldn't be. Even if it were, that wouldn't necessarily mean the application was likely to succeed in this case.

@mostdays Spot on - and as an example of racial intolerance given some of the posts.

To those who think this is a racial problem please look at the Catholic Church. Men abuse vulnerable women and children. All communities, white, black, Asian, rich, poor, in public and in private, everywhere, and nothing is done.

@Collaborate fair cop... I hadn’t fully read the article and had assumed he was seeking contact. Anyone can of course apply to court, or for permission to apply if no PR, but you’re right that’s not the case here and the council were simply adhering to the law by informing. This has been terribly badly reported.

@Oratorio I'm not saying the LA are blameless. They could and I'm sure should have applied to court for permission not to serve him with notice. Lessons will be learned I'm sure. But LA child care teams are overstretched and under resourced as are their legal teams so these things will happen until public services are once more properly funded.

@BigChocFrenzy

If you read my posts on this thread I haven't come out in support of TR or against the council, I explicitly said that there are caveats for instances like this in response to people saying its the law etc.

So not sure why you are posting that at me.

Ignore my post.

Given that it's actually quite difficult to succeed in a High Court application not to notify, it's a possibility that the reason Rotherham didn't do so is because they had reason to believe it wouldn't succeed. That's not how I understood it worked. From various reports on television and radio today and from my own work colleagues of some years ago, I understood that the mechanism for gaining permission NOT to notify is quite commonplace and that most circuit judges apply common sense quite easily!

The community workers I used to work with certainly managed to gain permission easily enough when one parent (mother or father) was assessed as being too volatile for a child's best interest to be served by any contact/responsibility

GrabEmbythepatriarchy It looks like Rotherham Council again doing the minimum they can legally get aay with,
as they did when failing to prevent hundreds of rapes by predator gangs

After their dreadful failure to protect hundreds of children,
Rotherham Council should be making every possible effort to protect the victims they failed before,
even if they aren't 100% sure every court action would succeed.

They have failed the people of Rotherham, especially the children,
so they should be going the extra mile to show they have changed,
instead of showing they are still a gang of misogynyst rape-apologists who don't give a shit and can't be trusted

I hope the voters of Rotherham take action next local elections and
Vote out the jobsworths & rape apologists in Rotherham Council

I'm not current but that's not my understanding. I wonder if it's possible there might be regional variation too, given that some family lawyers commenting have said it's effectively standard practice and some have said it isn't. The Transparency Project article linked to upthread is good (they also point out that we don't actually know whether the council did make the application but were refused).

Personally I'd have no problem if we were to do away with provisions to notify rapist fathers in situations like this, but it should come through Parliament.

MissingStreetLife I totally agree that rapists have one characteristic - not colour or religion - but sex:
Rapists are men, by definition

BUT
Rotherham Council and a few others have a long record of tolerating rapes of hundreds of children by one particular ethnic group

That is a failing of politics, of a rotten borough, of a sick culture in Labour politics there

Of course if people continue to defend and minimise the disgraceful actions of Rotherham Council,
then this only helps the far right and the odious Tommy Robinson

At the 2016 council elections, Labour had 48 seats (77,000 votes) , UKIP 14 (45,000) , Independent 1

Clearly those protesting against Rotherham Labour Council have already turned to the far right

The law itself isn't regional

It's just that some councils choose to apply to courts to prevent rapists seeing their children, whereas other councils don't

Even if it is caused by a closed culture among social workers in particular areas,
those councils can still set policy
They can state that victims and any children must be protected against rapists to the full limits of the law.

Rotherham Council have shown for the last 20 years that they shirk their duty to protect against rapists
and they still continue this

We need a new law to prevent rapists accessing the children they forcibly create,
because rotten boroughs like Rotherham Council will always prioritise the rights of the rapists, or be too lazy to defend against them

What do we think about the grandparents here? I don't think any of them want care of the 15 year old boy but are all 4 asked in cases like this? As a gradnparent I would want to have the chance to take in my grandchildren if they parents could not have them, rather than that they go into care.

Yes I suppose if they are suitable.

Username12345 YABU

The crime was against her for which he's being punished.
His child has a right to know their father - and he has a right to know his child

WTAF are you on about! He has a right to know his child, no he has no rights! He threw them away when he raped a child. What about the child's safety and wellbeing, he is rapist, a sex offender, and a paedophile! Do you honestly think he will care and look after this child, and have their well being and safety at heart. You have leaved go of all your senses.

And if the fathers parents have cut all ties with him and are horrified by what he is

If the child is a girl, who is to say that he could pimp her out and do the same as he did to her mum, or teach his son to follow his path and rape children. He should not be anywhere near children, and to indicate that he has rights, well they are limited, and any children's safety and well being should be put first.