Rotherham victim’s fury after council chiefs offer paedophile parental access
Brave Sammy Woodhouse was just 15 when she gave birth to Arshid Hussain's son after he repeatedly attacked her and other young girls
THE mum of a boy fathered by a rapist said: “I’ve been raped again, this time by the system” after the paedo was offered parental access.
Sammy Woodhouse was 15 when she gave birth to Arshid Hussain’s son.
The Rotherham grooming gang ringleader had repeatedly attacked her and other girls. She later gave evidence against him and saw him jailed for 35 years in 2016.
But she was traumatised last year when Rotherham Council chiefs offered him the chance to see his son behind bars once a week and full parental responsibility.
Sammy, 33, said social workers only informed her minutes before a family court hearing.
She told The Sun: “I was just in complete shock.
“This has left me feeling like I’ve been raped by the system. This isn’t just an error of a social worker.
“This goes all the way to the top. They all need to be held accountable.
“I want to be treated like a human being.”
Social workers told her they had to respect Hussain’s human rights.
Sammy added: “Luckily he said he didn’t want any contact. But what if he had said yes?”
Hussain led a gang which abused young white girls from 1997 to 2013. Social workers and police turned a blind eye.
Sammy, of Rotherham, is now campaigning for a change in the law to ensure rapists cannot have access to kids conceived during an attack.
The Ministry of Justice has launched a probe.
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Rotherham's Labour MP Sarah Champion said: "A minster, by the end of today, could sign off new guidance on this that makes it crystal clear that any rapist, any abuser, anyone that is an ongoing risk to a child, does not have the right to comment on their future."
A Rotherham Council spokesman said: “We do understand the legal requirements can cause upset and so we welcome a debate around this issue.”
THE SUN SAYS: NO RAPIST RIGHTS
The law must be clarified to ensure rapists are given no say over the lives of children resulting from their attacks.
The case of Sammy Woodhouse in Rotherham, who bravely came forward and waived her anonymity as a victim of sexual abuse in order to expose this injustice, leaves you open-mouthed.
Rotherham Council has failed to protect the victims of sexual abuse. Now it is failing to protect their children, too.
We must ensure this horrific episode is not repeated elsewhere.
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