The gaping chasm in Gwyneth Swain’s life is not only almost too much to bear. It is almost too painful to read about.
Today the Sunday Mirror campaigns on one of the most difficult issues we have ever tackled – children killed by their own parents.
Gwyneth lost daughter Kim, granddaughter Kayleigh and great-granddaughter Kimberley.
Three generations wiped out in a fire started by Kimberley’s father, Kayleigh’s abuser.
The killer is serving 35 years for the murders, but they need not have happened in the first place had he been kept away from them.
And that is what the Mirror is campaigning for today. A change in the law which would put child safety before human rights.
As things stand now social services have to fight to stop someone with a history of violence or child abuse or sex offending from seeing their child. We believe it should be the other way round.
A parent with that kind of background should prove he – for it is mostly men – is fit to be with children.
The figures tell their own horror story of how this has gone wrong. Sixty-three children dead at the hands of their parents since 2004.
That is not an arbitrary date. It was when the Children’s Act was updated in the wake of the Victoria Climbie tragedy.
After the eight-year-old was tortured and starved to death the cry went up: No more Victoria Climbies.
The nine-month probe by the Mirror’s award-winning Geraldine McKelvie shows how that fell on deaf ears in the corridors of power.
Of the 63 who died 52 were killed by fathers known to the authorities as domestic abusers. Seven involved both parents.
In many cases family members recognised the danger and tried in vain to raise the alarm.
When children die in such circumstances scapegoats are sought. But our campaign is not aimed at social workers or the police, judges or lawyers.
They have to operate within the laws MPs give them. It is the system which is at fault and it is the system which must be changed.
Our campaign is backed by the domestic violence charity Refuge and shadow Home Office minister Carolyn Harris.
Refuge wants to see the law changed and Carolyn will do her damndest to change it.
We want to deny anyone convicted of violent crime, child abuse or sex offences an automatic right to be with their children unsupervised. Social workers and judges involved in family cases should have proper training in domestic abuse so they know exactly what they are dealing with.
And funding should be made available to support the specialist therapy children who have become victims so desperately need.
It is too late to end Gwyneth Swain’s living nightmare or to bring back loved ones so tragically and needlessly lost. But it is not too late to stop this happening again.
