The rule will apply to anyone convicted of the murder or voluntary manslaughter of a person with whom they share parental responsibility and would then be reviewed by a judge to ensure it is in the best interests of the child. An automatic exemption would be put in place where a domestic abuse victim kills their abuser.
It will prevent killers from having any say over key elements of their life including whether they can access therapeutic support, go on holiday or change schools. Also, the bereaved will no longer have to go through the process of applying to restrict parental responsibility through the family court.
The law will be named after Jade Ward, who was murdered by her former partner, Russell Marsh, in 2021. Despite currently serving at least 25 years in prison for her murder, he still retains parental rights. Since her killer was convicted, Jade’s family have campaigned to change the law so parental responsibility from the parent who killed the other is removed automatically.
In an interview with The UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee, Ms Ward's mother Karen Robinson said, ‘After [Marsh] had been remanded, we found out he still had parental rights to the boys, which we thought was just bizarre.
‘How can a person who has slaughtered the other parent be able to keep the [parental] rights?
‘So from that day we decided to do the Jade's Law campaign, because if Marsh would have known he would have lost the rights to the boys then maybe Jade would still be alive.’
