AT the age of 14, Lauren Sullivan suffered nine months of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Shaun Dallisson.
But, even after her dad was jailed and put on the sex offenders’ register, he made a cynical move which left her horrified – and gave him the potential to abuse again.
Shaun Dallisson has gone on to change his name, which Lauren believes is an attempt to escape his pastCredit: Lauren-Eden Penn
Lauren waived her right to anonymity to share her story and campaign for Della’s lawCredit: Lauren-Eden Penn
Lauren only met her estranged father, Dallisson, when she was 11 years oldCredit: Lorna Roach
Lauren, 26, discovered her dad had changed his name by deed poll.
This means if people the new name, nothing about his sordid past will come up and she worries that it won’t have been correctly linked to his old identity, allowing him to pass DBS checks he should .
Now she is worried that the shelving of a proposed bill, which had been progressing through parliament, will allow more sex offenders to fall off the radar.
Della’s Law, which aimed to prevent sex offenders from changing their names, reached parliament two years ago but has been dropped since Labour came to power, leaving campaigners feeling betrated.
Worse, instead of offenders being barred from a new moniker, those on the register now have LONGER to inform cops if they swap their name.
The new Crime and Policing Bill 2025 allows sick offenders seven days to notify cops of an intent to change name, rather than informing them within three days of the change, which Lauren fears will give them longer to slip off the radar.
“For survivors, this move from the government is completely in the wrong direction,” she said.
“Extending the notification window isn’t strengthening safeguarding at all. It’s the opposite of what we’ve been asking for all these years.
“It’s a kick in the teeth.”
Brave Lauren, who has waived her right to anonymity, only met her estranged father, Dallisson, when she was 11 years old, after he was diagnosed with HIV.
, often claiming he had come off his HIV medication to intimidate her.
Dallisson was jailed for eight years for his offences and signed the sex offenders register indefinitely in 2014.
But in 2022 Lauren discovered he had changed his name – something Lauren believes is a deliberate attempt to evade his past.
She said: “Allowing sex offenders to change their name is allowing them to evade their past and what they’ve done.
“Plus it is on them to notify police that they’ve done it, and it’s likely many won’t bother.
“It’s not reassuring for survivors and gives loopholes that they might not get flagged as an offender on a DBS check or appear on a Claire’s Law search or Sarah’s Law search.
“They could use it as a way to get access to vulnerable people again, and that means the system to protect people is failing.”
Lauren also raised concerns about those who do report their name changes not having the two identities linked correctly, which causes the same concerns.
Missing sex beasts
Lauren wants it to be made illegal for sex offenders to change their namesCredit: supplied
Her father plied her with drink and drugs to groom her into being his victimCredit: Lorna Roach
In 2023 the BBC discovered that 729 sex offenders had gone missing or were wanted for arrest after being placed on the sex offender register.
The same also found that 1,500 sex offenders had notified police forces of lawful name changes. At the time there were approximately 67,000 registered sex offenders in the UK.
In 2019, The Sun revealed that many offenders spend , with some being given just 69 days on the register. for vile offences.
A Freedom of Information request around offenders being able to request removal from the register after 15 years found that hundreds had been successful.
Only those who committed serious offences are given life on the register but can apply for removal every 15 years.
The probe also found that 20 offenders who were removed from the register, at their own request, reoffended between 2015 and 2019.
Groomed as a teen
Dallisson left Lauren’s mum when she was pregnant, only reconnecting with his daughter after discovering he was HIV positive.
For the first three years of their relationship, there was no abuse, but Lauren believes he purposely waited three years to build up trust before grooming her.
He started by treating her like an adult with few rules and plying her with and alcohol.
Lauren said: “I kind of had this idealistic idea of what a dad would be and kind of fantasised as a child about what my dad was like.
No survivor should have to worry about their abuser being able to fly under the radar because of a name change
Lauren Sullivan
“I was always hoping that he would come back, and he definitely played on that.
“He also used my parents being separated to groom me as well. He’d tell me my mum didn’t understand what it was like to be a teenager, that she didn’t give me enough freedom, that she was too strict and so on.
“He was constantly positioning me against my mum when she was the only person that actually protected me and cared about me.”
Lauren was just 14 when Dallisson started his campaign of abuse, starting with assaulting her when she fell asleep watching a film.
“I woke up to his hands down my trousers. I was just kind of frozen. I had no idea what to do or think,” she explains.
What is Della's Law
Della’s law was started by Della Wright, who was abused at age six by Terry Price, who had since changed his name to Robert McEwan.
Ahead of his trial in 2016, he changed his name to Mr Mac, disrupting the legal system as the charges were for Mr McEwan.
The trial eventually went ahead.
He was sentenced to 22 years in prison with a five-year extension after being found guilty of sex offences involving children.
Price went on to change his name and then offend again. In total he changed his name five times while conducting a series of offences over three decades.
Supporters of Della’s law are calling for it to be illegal for convicted sex offenders to change their names.
In 2020, Della told Sky News: “I just thought how many relationships has he had? How many jobs has he had around children? We don’t know but we know he’s a prolific offender. It makes me really angry and it shouldn’t be possible.
“This person has been through the system not once but countless times – and even as recently as 2016 he was allowed to change his name again whilst in prison.”
“He stopped because I was crying, and he realised I wasn’t asleep.
“He was immediately so apologetic; he described himself as a monster, and that actually made me feel really guilty.”
It was on a trip to that year that he escalated the abuse.
“This was the first time he had full intercourse with me,” she says.
“My nan and my brother were in the next room, and I just lay there frozen with fear. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Now when I look back at the photos of me swimming with dolphins and looking so happy, it is horrifying to think I had no idea what would happen just a day later.”
‘No remorse’
He waited three years before starting to assault her, and eventually pleaded guilty in courtCredit: supplied
Dallisson’s abuse came to light when Lauren’s mother discovered messages on her daughter’s phone and realised what had been going on. She reported him to the police.
Dallisson pleaded guilty to the offences in 2014, meaning his sentence was halved, and Lauren believed it showed remorse, but since he changed his name, she believes it was all a ploy for less jail time.
“As a teenager I really held on to him pleading guilty as meaning he had remorse,” she said.
“I was still heavily influenced by his grooming, I think.
“Then as an adult I opted to go through restorative justice – where you eventually meet with your abuser.
“But all that highlighted for me was that he is not remorseful for anything he’s done. It was an outward remorse for show.
“He pulled out of meeting me, claiming he was rebuilding his life, and all I wanted was to talk to the press. It showed me that he didn’t want to make amends or anything even close to it.
“Added to him changing his name, it tells me that he’s trying to avoid people knowing what he has done.”
Lauren has opted to share her story on , with some of her videos about her dad’s name change going viral.
Since posting, she’s heard from many other abuse survivors of their offenders opting to change their names as well.
In the UK, a deed poll request isn’t dealt with by the government; instead, it is done by private companies. To notify the government, people have to pay just over £53 to have their name changed on public record via the High Court.
If it’s not reported to the High Court or police, it is likely that their new name won’t show anything untoward on a DBS check.
She said: “I worry that the names aren’t properly linked if they do disclose changes to police, and that should never be an option.
“Della’s law would stop there being any worries around name changes because it would make it illegal, and there should be sanctions.
“No survivor should have to worry about the ir abuser being able to fly under the radar because of a name change.”
Lauren had spent time as a child imaging what her father would be like before she met himCredit: SUPPLIED
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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