Mother whose sons were killed by their father says law change will save lives

A mother whose two sons were killed by their father said she hopes they would be proud after a decade of campaigning in their names has resulted in a promised change in the law on parental contact.

Claire Throssell’s sons Jack, 12, and Paul, nine, were killed in a house fire started by their father in October 2014, after he was granted access to the boys.

Ms Throssell, from Penistone, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said the legal change – announced around the 11th anniversary of her sons’ deaths – “will save so many children’s lives”.

The inquest into the boys’ deaths heard they had been lured to their father Darren Sykes’s home with a new model train set, before he set fire to the building, also killing himself.

He had been granted access to his children for five hours a week, despite Ms Throssell’s evidence that he had previously threatened to kill them and himself.

The Government has now said it will repeal a law under the Children Act 1989 which currently guides the Family Court to presume that contact with both parents is usually in the best interests of a child.

The Ministry of Justice said while this current presumption can be overturned if there is evidence that a parent could put the child at risk of harm, removing this particular law completely should lead to quicker decisions to restrict the involvement of abusive parents.

A report for the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s office, published earlier this month, found in many legal cases the presumption remained that parental contact – including unsupervised overnight contact – was still the right approach, even in cases where domestic abuse is present.

It prompted commissioner Dame Nicole Jacobs to criticise “antiquated views” in the courts system which she said were contributing to decisions which put children in harm’s way.

She welcomed the Government’s announcement was a “pivotal moment that will improve how domestic abuse is responded to within the Family Court and ensure children are properly heard, protected and supported”,  and said it is now up to ministers “to ensure this critical change is enacted as soon as possible”.

The Ministry of Justice has not given a timeframe for repealing the law, only that it will do so “when parliamentary time allows”.

Ms Throssell, who was made an MBE in 2020 for her tireless campaigning on behalf of children subjected to domestic abuse, said the change must come urgently.

She said: “It needs to go through as soon as possible. Children can’t wait. Whilst there’s no change in place, children are still at risk of dying, children are still at risk of harm.”

She said she had been inspired by her love for her sons to keep fighting despite having been “in the darkest places” amidst her grief, and she now hopes “that they’d be proud” of her achievement.

In an interview with the PA news agency, she said: “It doesn’t feel like a victory or a win, but it does feel that there is a change coming in the country, and it will save so many children’s lives. I have to take comfort from that.

“I had a choice. I could have given in, given up, hated the world. It’s easier to hate than to love, as we know at the moment, and I chose to harness their love and fight.”

Ms Throssell was joined by her MP, Marie Tidball, victims’ minister Alex Davies-Jones and head of Women’s Aid Farah Nazeer for a meeting with the Prime Minister ahead of the announcement on Tuesday.

Welcoming her to 10 Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer praised the courage she had shown through her campaigning and said the presumption should never have been in place and has “got to go”.

“I’ve got two kids, and I honestly don’t know whether I’d be having  the courage you have to campaign,” he said.

“I have humbly salute your courage.

“I honestly don’t know if I could do it.”

He added: “We are going to do this.”

Ms Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid which has been campaigning on the issue for decades and has supported Ms Throssell in her fight, said repealing the law “has the potential to absolutely change the lives of survivors and child survivors of domestic abuse”.

But she said while the announcement is “brilliant”, a key issue is also the training of judges.

She said: “There is a fundamental lack of transparency and accountability when it comes to judges and magistrates recognising domestic abuse, recognising coercive control, and hearing child voices in the Family Court system.

“So we really need for those judges to be trained to understand what is happening when they’re seeing it unfold before their eyes.”

Justice minister Sarah Sackman said the announcement is “hugely significant” and one “which will help us protect children for years to come”.

She said: “What today’s announced change in the law does is it puts the focus back on to children.”

Pressed on how soon the law might change, she said: “I’m eager for it to happen as soon as parliamentary time allows. I think the fact that we’re announcing it today sends a clear signal to family courts about the direction of travel, about the fact that this Government’s emphasis is on putting the child’s voice at the centre of the Family Court.

“So in and of itself, I think it’s significant, but I want to see that law change as soon as possible.”

A Ministry of Justice report, published alongside the announcement, stated: “Whilst family justice practitioners generally made every effort to centre child welfare across their practice, the evidence of the review suggested that system practice and the resulting court decisions could leave children at ongoing risk of harm.”

Earlier this week the Government also announced plans, as part of the Victims and Courts Bill, to automatically restrict parental responsibility for rapists whose crimes resulted in the birth of a child and parents who have committed serious sex offences against any children.