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Prosecutors should charge monsters who beat children with child cruelty offences so they can be more closely monitored when they leave prison, a minister has suggested. Sentencing Minister Jake Richards, in an interview with the Daily Express, praised heroic Tony Hudgell’s campaign for greater protections for children. And he vowed to work with Tony’s mum, Paula, on strengthening the Child Cruelty Register amid fears that loopholes could allow some thugs to avoid greater scrutiny.

Brutes convicted of grievous bodily harm or actual bodily harm won’t be put on the list, as it currently stands, because it could overwhelm police. And Mr Richards admitted he hopes the Crown Prosecution Service will increasingly use child cruelty offences so abusers are treated like sex offenders. The new database, which the Daily Express has backed, would copy the sex offenders’ register, forcing offenders to tell police if they move homes, change their names, get into new relationships, travel abroad, stay in a house for 12 hours or more with children, and some could even be forced to tell officers about any planned contact with youngsters in a private setting.

Sitting in his office in the Ministry of Justice, Mr Richards told the Daily Express: “The judges are independent, as is the CPS, but one would hope that the creation of this register would inform some of the charging decisions and indeed sentencing decisions that might be made.

“For example, if I was a CPS prosecutor… the creation of this register may mean that, for example, someone who might be charged from GBH instead would be charged with causing serious harm to a child, because they know that that is covered by the register.” The campaign has been championed by Paula Hudgell, whose adopted son Tony was horrifically beaten by his evil birth parents. Tony was just 41 days old when Jody Simpson and her partner Anthony Smith attacked him, causing multiple fractures and dislocations, and blunt trauma to the face, leading to organ failure, toxic shock and sepsis.

He was left untreated and in agony for 10 days and because of the extent of his injuries both his legs had to be amputated.

Mr Richards said Labour began drawing up proposals for a Child Cruelty Register after Tory MP Helen Grant raised the loophole during a debate on the Government’s sentencing reforms. He admitted: “We were taking through measures to try and essentially save our prison system, and this issue emerged during those debates, through Paula’s constituency MP.

“And it was the first time I had heard of this hole in our system, which really shocked me, to be honest.

“We’re not quite sure exactly how many children would be covered by it, but unfortunately, we do know that the number of people convicted of the offences covered by the current proposal is in the hundreds.

“These are children who have been hurt by people, and those people will now be monitored far more closely than they perhaps would have been otherwise. And I think the best parallel is with the sex offenders’ register.

“It seems to us, and to Paula, that those people who commit physical offences, egregious physical offences when those adults are trusted to be looking after children, there’s a particular problem with those people, and they need to be monitored, because any interaction with children needs to be managed incredibly carefully. I feel very confident because of this measure, lives will be saved.”

But Mr Richards also revealed ministers are prepared to include GBH and ABH on the Child Cruelty Register if thugs are continuing to slip through the net.

He said: “If we believe it’s necessary and critically that it can be enforced, then of course. This government is absolutely committed to ensuring that we have better protection for children, particularly, our commitment to halve finance against women and girls.

“And look, I spoke to Paula about this. She has my number, I have her number, the conversation with Paula is not going to end because of this successful campaign and we’re going to keep in touch.”