Paula and Tony Hudgell who campaigned for the register (Picture: Invicta Kent Media/Shutterstock)
Abusive parents will be placed on a register like sex offenders are under proposed changes.
The Child Cruelty Register would see parents and caregivers who physically harm children closely monitored by police and face similar restrictions to registered sex offenders.
It would be introduced through an amendment to the Police and Crime Bill and follows extensive campaigning by Paula Hudgell.
Her adoptive son Tony had to have his legs amputated after he was badly abused and neglected by his birth parents.
‘To be able to sort of get this over the line has been quite a challenge,’ she said reacting to the news.
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‘I am delighted. It feels very surreal after such a long campaign, and hopefully it will save many lives going forward.’
Tony was just 41 days old when Jody Simpson and her partner Anthony Smith left him with multiple fractures and dislocations, leading to organ failure, toxic shock, and sepsis.
Tony had to have his legs amputated after he was badly abused and neglected by his birth parents (Picture: Invicta Kent Media/REX/Shutterstock)
They then left him untreated for 10 days, leading to his injuries becoming so bad he had to have both his legs amputated.
The ‘remorseless’ pair were each jailed for 10 years in 2018.
The amendment, which the government expects to table ‘shortly’ and is expected to come into force in November, would cover crimes including child neglect, child cruelty, abandonment, female genital mutilation (FGM), and infanticide.
Anyone on it would have to tell police if they move house, change their identity, travel abroad, or live with children again after serving their sentence.
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Sentencing minister, Jake Richards, paid tribute to Mrs Hudgell for her ‘remarkable fight to ensure no child should go through the life-altering abuse that her son Tony did’.
He added: ‘Child abusers do not deserve shielding; children do. The Child Cruelty Register will ensure these offenders are visible to the police, allowing authorities to see and act when risks arise.’
Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said: ‘We’ve listened to the Hudgells, and to the many families who feel the system hasn’t done enough to protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, and we are taking vital action.
‘Whether it be online, on the streets, in schools, or from their own caregivers – children are being kept safer under this government.’
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