We revealed on Saturday how a legal loophole allows killer dads to control their children, even when they are in prison for their crime.
Jade’s Law would close that loophole and end all parental rights for killers the moment they are convicted.
Today, Killed Women — a network for the bereaved families of women murdered by the men in their lives — has written an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for the law to be changed.
And a gran whose daughter was killed by a man she calls “The Monster” tells of her three-year battle for custody of the murderer’s children.
She says: “The stress on top of the horrific trauma almost broke me.
“The children and their family are all victims.”
Killed Women’s powerful letter tells how a killer’s ability to inflict further pain is not stopped even after their crime.
The group is calling for Jade’s Law to be included in the Victims and Prisoners Bill, currently going through Parliament.
Our campaign is in memory of 27-year-old mum Jade Ward, who was stabbed and strangled by her estranged husband Russell Marsh, 29, in Shotton, Flintshire, in August 2021.
He still has input into the lives of their four children from prison.
Also backing the initiative is the grandmother, whose daughter was stabbed to death by her husband.
The couple’s two primary school-age children were taken into care, and the gran, who had lived with the family before the murder, did not see them for months.
It has taken three years for her to be finally given custody of her grandchildren, but throughout that time their killer dad still had control over them from his prison cell.
The gran, who we cannot name for legal reasons, tells The Sun: “The children disappeared from our lives for nearly four months.
“Our family was not party to any proceedings, we had no idea what was happening, but the murderer did.
“This has to change.”
After killing their mother, their father went on the run with the children and was captured by armed police nearly 150 miles away.
The children were taken into emergency foster homes and their gran had no idea where they were.
She says: “We weren’t given any information.
“We weren’t told they had been made wards of court, and I’m the maternal grandma.
“But the murderer knew what was going on because he still had parental rights.
“It doesn’t matter what they have done, those rights don’t get removed from a father.”
She adds: “Overnight, the children lost all the faces they knew and depended on their whole lives.
“They lost Mum, Dad and all of us too.
“It was like we disappeared off the face of the earth.
“They never got a phone call with us or FaceTime.
“We didn’t know where they were.
“Can you imagine their fear?
“I can’t imagine what it was like for them.
“It must have been horrendous.”
She eventually got sparse contact with the kids but says it was only after she hired a lawyer that the agencies gave her information.
On a Zoom meeting with her family and representatives of Cafcass — the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service — the grandma asked if the children could live with her.
She recalls: “The social worker said, ‘I will have to ask the prisoner’.
“They referred to him as ‘Mister’, which absolutely infuriated me.
“He doesn’t deserve that title.
“Then we realised this was a huge problem that needs addressing.
“He gets school reports on the children.
“He can say whether they can have vaccinations and even whether we can take them on holiday.”
In public she calls her daughter’s killer The Prisoner, but adds: “In my head I call him The Monster.”
After nearly a year, she applied to have the children live with her and it has taken another 18 months for approval to be granted.
She says: “In the beginning The Prisoner tried to block me but when it all went through courts he can have no contact with the children.
“But even though he has had a no-contact order, he still has parental responsibility rights. He can still pull the levers.
“The stress on top of the horrific trauma almost broke me.
“The children and family are all victims.
“That’s why we need Jade’s Law.”
Anna Ryder, director of Killed Women, said the open letter “makes clear” the anguish of bereaved children and families whose loved ones are brutally killed.
She added: “The impact of domestic abuse and homicide on children is a shamefully ignored area of policy, currently little more than an afterthought.
“This loophole in the law is a shocking example of that.”
Labour MP Jess Phillips told us: “The courageous campaigning of Jade Ward’s family, and others from the Killed Women network, is forcing decision-makers to recognise this glaring loophole.
“We must listen to their voices.”
Dear Prime Minister
WE are families whose loved daughters, sisters, aunties and mothers were killed by domestic abusers.
We know from experience that the impact of domestic homicide on bereaved families is lifelong, a grief and pain that can never be taken away.
The impact on children who have their mothers taken from them by killer fathers is unimaginable.
Yet even after the death, the ability of the killer to inflict pain isn’t stopped.
Unbelievably, if a father kills a mother, parental responsibility stays with that killer.
That means that after ending the mother’s life and destroying their children’s lives, these killers still have power over their children.
It means they can be involved in decisions affecting their young lives, including medical treatment or travel.
These killers can use this power to continue the controlling and abusive behaviour they inflicted upon the woman they killed.
Some abusive fathers have tried to block maternal family members from gaining custody of the children they love, the kids left to languish in the care system instead.
Some of our families weren’t able to see their loved nieces, nephews or grandchildren for months on end, custody battles sometimes lasting years.
Many face a cruel separation that has a devastating impact on both bereaved children and the murdered mother’s family alike.
For the ones that do get custody, the lack of financial, legal or emotional support for families left looking after deeply traumatised – sometimes suicidal – bereaved children is scandalous.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill currently going through Parliament is the opportunity to make a change.
We urge the Government to use this moment to ease the suffering of families like ours.
Yours, Killed Women.