Killer in prison wins right to father a child by artificial insemination

A murderer serving life in jail must have the right to father a child by artificial insemination, European human rights judges have declared.

They said British courts and the Government were wrong to stop Kirk Dickson from having a child with another prisoner who has now been released.

The ruling means ministers will have to change the law to allow so-called "FedEx sex" inmates who want to father children to do so.

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Dickson, 35, is serving a minimum of 15 years in jail for kicking to death a man who refused to hand over a pack of cigarettes.

He met his 49-year-old wife Lorraine, who already has three children, through a penpal scheme while she was in prison for a £27,000 benefits fiddle.

The European judges backed their claim by a majority of 17 to five and awarded the couple £18,000 in damages and costs.

The attempts of the couple to have a child cost £20,000 in legal aid and ended in refusal by then Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2001 and failure in the Appeal Court.

Last year the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg also turned down the claim.

But yesterday, the final appeal court of the Strasbourg human rights tribunal, the Grand

Chamber, said that blocking the couple from artificial insemination was a denial of their human right to become parents.

It dismissed the public interest in proper punishment and the good upbringing of any child of the couple as merely "public opinion".

And the European judges hinted that in future British courts may be required to allow prisoners "conjugal visits" - sex in jail.

The ruling provoked outrage from Tory MPs and criticism from criminal justice experts yesterday. David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "This is madness. It is time to pull out of the European human rights court.

"Human rights legislation exists for the benefit of criminals and terrorists, not for ordinary people."

Criminologist Dr David Green of the Civitas think-tank said: 'It is wrong to put the interests of the couple before the interests of the child.

"The European judges are making the public interest in children being brought up in good circumstances no more than a matter of public opinion. This travesty is another triumph for human rights."

The ruling is likely to force the Government to change the law to allow Dickson and other prisoners rights to have children.

Ministers are already poised to give prisoners the right to vote because of a European human rights ruling.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "We are disappointed by the Grand Chamber's judgment in this case.

"We will examine this judgment in detail to determine the extent to which our policy needs to be reviewed."

Dickson was convicted of murder in 1995 in Nottingham.

He is in Dovegate prison near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, and cannot expect to be released for two more years.

Lorraine Earlie was jailed for 12 months in 1999 at Hull Crown Court for failing to declare maintenance payments for her three children from her first husband.

She and Dickson married in 2001 after her release. They claim she will be too old to have children when he is released.