A council offered a jailed sex offender the chance to play a part in the future of the child of a woman he raped, it has emerged.

The rapist, who was part of a grooming gang in the North of the country and has no parental responsibility for his son, was contacted by the local authority to give him a chance to see the boy, a Times investigation has uncovered.

To protect the child the names of the parents and of the local authority have been withheld.

The man featured in a criminal trial which saw several men of Pakistani origin found guilty of sex offences against numerous vulnerable women, including the boy’s mother.

Upon hearing the news the woman said she was “extremely distressed” that he had been contacted, despite giving evidence against him in court for raping her when she was 15.

“I was gobsmacked” she told the paper. “The council knew what he did to me and to other vulnerable girls. They knew he was behind bars and a risk to my son, who wanted nothing to do with him, but they bent over backwards to include him in the case. I felt angry and scared for my son.”