A five-year-old girl must keep the surname of her father who raped her mother, a High Court judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Peel said the dad’s name forms a key part of the child’s identity and heritage, as he upheld the decision at an appeal.

This comes despite the father carrying out several incidents of domestic abuse against the mum, including rape and threats.

The child, referred to as D, has not seen him since December 2021.

‘It just shows that a rapist’s rights are more important than [the] victim’s,’the mother’s barrister, Charlotte Proudman, told The Times, who reported on the case.

The family court’s fact-finding proceedings found the father had committed four ‘very serious’ incidents of sexual abuse against the mother between 2015 and 2017.

This included rape, ‘despite her say

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