Bolsover MP Natalie Fleet spearheads campaign to protect children from abusers
Natalie Fleet MP has led a campaign to amend the Victims and Courts Bill to better protect children from convicted sex offenders.
On Monday, Parliament tabled changes that will automatically restrict parental responsibility for those convicted of serious sexual offences against any child, including cases where a child is born of rape. This means abusers will no longer be able to make key decisions in a child’s life, such as schooling, medical care, or travel.
The reforms are part of a wider government plan to better protect vulnerable children and survivors of abuse, and follow a campaign spearheaded by Natalie alongside Baroness Harman and Jess Asato MP.
Natalie, who grew up on a council estate in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, and became pregnant at 15 after starting a relationship with an older man, said these amendments could “finally offer protection” for both children and mothers.
Reflecting on her experience, she said: “I believed that I had done something wrong and never, ever saw myself as a child who was about to give birth to a child. I was called a wide range of names and I believed them.”
She added: "This amendment will finally offer protection for not only children born of rape but also the mothers, who have until now lived in fear of their rapists interfering in the lives of their children through parental responsibility rights.
"This change puts the rights of survivors above the rights of rapists and signals a landmark shift in how our legal system values safety, dignity, and truth."
The campaign and subsequent reforms aim to ensure that survivors and their children can live free from ongoing trauma and control by convicted offenders.