If ever there was a reason to withdraw from the madness that is the European Court of Human Rights then the ruling that said a convicted murderer should be able to father a child by his ex-jailbird wife is it.
Kirk Dickson and his wife Lorraine met via a prisoners' pen pal scheme - he was convicted of murder and is serving life for kicking a man to death for refusing to hand over cigarettes, and she was inside for a £27,000 benefits fiddle.
The court decreed that the British government was wrong to stop the couple becoming parents and that it was a denial of their human rights. Further, it awarded them €5,000 in damages and €21,000 in costs.
How can becoming a parent be a human right? What about the child? What chance will it have? The court said that a public interest in punishment and the upbringing of the child was merely "public opinion".
In an interview with the
Daily Mail, Mrs Dickson said: "I know some people think that Kirk should have thought about whether he wanted children before he committed murder, and others think I shouldn't have married someone serving a life sentence if I wanted another child."
Another child? She already has three children. It was her failure to declare maintenance payments from her first husband when making fraudulent benefits claims which got her sent down in the first place. She was already bankrupt and had convictions for deception and conspiracy to defraud.
This is just another example of the perverse nature of our "partners" in Europe and the sooner we leave them to it, the better.
