Daughter of Bernadette Mcneilly sets up petition to protect children from abusive parents and trauma

The daughter of one of the killers of Suzanne Capper, Kelly Higgins, has started a petition to 'Automatically remove parental responsibility for parents convicted of abuse'

Kelly Higgins is the daughter of Bernadette Mcneilly, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder in 1993 for the murder of Suzanne Capper, a 16-year-old who was tortured for a week, and later burned alive by Mcneilly and her fellow cultists in Manchester. Higgins has said that she could hear Capper scratching on the walls in the next room. Higgins has also said that Mcneilly would force her to stand on one leg for as long as she could before beating her, and would get a man to come and beat her on other occasions.

Higgins was put under foster care after the sentencing, and after her father gave her back to social services due to a drug issue. Despite her mother being convicted of such a heinous crime, as well as being abusive to Higgins, Mcneilly retained parental responsibility rights, meaning that even though Mcneilly was in prison, Higgins still had to go to see her mother six times a year. Higgins would scream prior to going, and her foster parents did not want to take her to see her abusive mother, but due to Mcneilly retaining parental responsibility, Higgins was forced to meet with her mother.

Due to parental responsibility, Mcneilly's consent was required if Higgins wanted to go abroad or even to get her ears pierced, with Mcneilly still having a presence and exercising control in Higgins' life, despite her crimes and abusive behaviour.

Higgins has said that she has had people reach out to her who have been forced to see their abusive parents, carrying physical scars on their bodies and suffering with night terrors as a result of the physical and mental abuse they had received.

In her petition, she has said that 'children being required to see their abusive parents and allowing them to still make decisions regarding the child's life is abuse in itself and may cause more suffering.' and has called for the law to be changed to 'automatically remove parental responsibility from parents convicted of abuse.' She claims that 'many children are failed by the system and may be left with lifelong trauma and PTSD.'

There have been two recent reforms in the law around parental responsibility, the first being Jade's Law, which was focused around the removal of parental responsibility from those who have been convicted of murder or voluntary manslaughter of someone that they have children with. The Victim and Courts Act, which received royal assent on 30 April 2026, is the second, and this specified that parental responsibility can be removed if the parent had been convicted of a sexual offence, or if the child had been conceived as a result of rape. The VCA makes note that the legal process involved in these situations can be abusive for the victims.

Although these two reforms are a step forward, Higgins has set up this petition believing that there are still children today who are suffering from the trauma that she had to face, still children who have to meet with their abusive parents multiple times a year, who face trauma due to the abuse they received. Children who still suffer from their parents holding control over the children they abused. That is why she has set up the petition, with her wanting the automatic removal of parental responsibility from those convicted of abuse, and for that responsibility to instead be passed onto the foster parents.

At the time of writing, Higgins has close to 14,000 signatures to her petition on the House of Commons e-petitions website, which is enough to warrant a response from the Government (with that threshold being at 10,000), however to get this issue debated in the House of Commons in Westminster by MPs and ministers, she needs to reach a total of 100,000 signatures.

Higgins has only until September 11 of this year to reach 100,000 signatures, which if reached, could mean that either a backbench MP or the Government may draft legislation to remove parental responsibility from those convicted of abuse, protecting children from having their abusive parents present in their lives.

To sign Kelly Higgins' petition, follow the link: Higgins' petition