People jailed for killing their partner will lose parental rights, Tories to announce
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New powers to stop people who have killed their partners from gaining parental rights to surviving children will be introduced before the end of the year, the justice secretary will say.
Alex Chalk will introduce “Jade’s law” later this year to protect families from the manipulation of jailed abusers.
The measures, named after Jade Ward, who was stabbed and strangled by her partner, Russell Marsh, as their four sons were sleeping in 2021, will introduce an automatic suspension of parental responsibility while any mother or father is serving time for killing the person with which they shared that responsibility.
At present, parental responsibility remains in place when one parent kills the other, and the family or guardians of the children must consult that parent on decisions including health, education and travel.
The announcement comes 10 months after Labour said they would back the same law.
Marsh killed Ward, 27, at their Flintshire home in 2021. Despite being sent to prison, Marsh has still attempted to control his children from behind bars.
Marsh retains rights to request progress reports and medical details of his children and could even block them getting therapy and travelling abroad, despite being found guilty of murdering their mother.
Ward’s parents have cared for her children ever since and have campaigned to end Marsh’s parental rights. He has contacted the family, asking for photographs, school reports and medical details.
Jade’s father, Paul Ward, told the BBC in July that the situation was “absolutely shocking”, adding: “It’s him behind prison cells dragging things up, it’s just very hard.
“The boys don’t want contact with him. They don’t want contact with him at all.”
He added that if he wanted to get passports for his grandsons, it would need to go through the courts.
The measures will be introduced to parliament as part of the victims and prisoners bill. It comes three months after the government turned down an amendment to a bill that would have changed the law, saying they were looking for a quicker way to introduce new powers.
In a speech on Tuesday afternoon, Chalk will tell the Conservative party conference: “Jade Ward’s case and the moving campaign of her family has exposed an injustice in our family justice system, one that we are committed to fixing.
“Murderers who kill their partners should not be able to manipulate and control their children from behind bars, which is why we are fixing the law to protect families from this appalling behaviour.”
It represents the end of a long campaign initiated by the parents of Jade Ward and the Labour MP Mark Tami.
A friend of the family, Edward Duggan, launched a petition for the law change and secured more than 130,000 signatures, triggering a Commons debate in November 2022.