Successful Application to Discharge Client's SHPO

Case study summary

We secured the discharge of our client's sexual harm prevention order after gathering evidence of the progress he had made since it was imposed and providing expert representation at court. This allowed our client to have contact with his newborn son.

Case study

Our client approached us for help with discharging a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO). The order had been imposed following convictions for sexual offences committed more than 20 years earlier, when he was a teenager.

Since being sentenced, our client had developed significant insight into his offending and taken positive steps towards rehabilitation and rebuilding his life. He had recently married, and his partner was pregnant when he instructed us. The restrictions imposed by the SHPO would have prevented him from having contact with his newborn son.

We took detailed instructions and obtained evidence to support the application, including statements from his social worker and offender manager, both of whom supported the application, together with character references. We prepared and submitted the application with the supporting material and instructed a specialist barrister to represent him at court.

The court considered the evidence we had gathered of our client’s rehabilitation, current circumstances and support network and was satisfied that the order could be discharged. The successful application allowed our client to have contact with his newborn son and play an active role in his upbringing. With the order discharged before Christmas. Our client was overjoyed to be able to spend the holiday with his family too.