Grandmother loses custody of girl, 3, to SEX OFFENDER father

A judge has provoked fury by handing custody of a three-year-old girl to a registered sex offender.

The ruling in Jacksonville, Florida, means little Miranda Wilkerson’s late mother’s husband, Donald Coleman, will gain custody of her.

It means Miranda has to leave her mateal grandmother, Rita Manning, and move states to Georgia, where sex offender Mr Coleman lives.

Stuck in the middle: Miranda Wilkerson is at the centre of a custody battle between her grandmother Rita Manning and sex offender father Donald Coleman

Mr Coleman became a sex offender after impregnating Miranda’s mother, Trista Crews Coleman, with another baby.

Ms Coleman died one month after Miranda’s birth in a car crash, reported First Coast News.

Ms Coleman was aged only 14 when she was first made pregnant, and he was 38.

But he filed for divorce and claimed at one point she was pregnant with another man’s baby.

However he is still Miranda’s legal father because he was married to her mother when she was bo, reported WJXX-TV and ABC News.

Mr Coleman had pushed for custody because Ms Manning was not allowing him to see Miranda, court documents alleged.

In another confusing twist, Ms Manning was charged with child neglect in 1997, when Mr Coleman got her daughter pregnant, reported WJXX-TV.

But Ms Manning fumed about the judge's decision and the custody transfer last Wednesday, saying the girl's 'whole world is here' with her.

The couple had two more children after she first got pregnant aged 14.

Mr Coleman was sentenced to register as a sex offender but Ms Manning allowed him to marry Ms Coleman as she was expecting a baby.

Miranda grew up with her grandparents after Ms Coleman died - and her family claim Mr Coleman is not her father.

State Representative Janet Adkins told WJXX-TV she is ‘absolutely appalled’ by the case and ‘very conceed’ for the girl’s well-being.

Ms Adkins is now working with state family officials to work out if they can do anything to retu Miranda to her grandparents.

Don't go: Miranda's mateal grandmother, Rita Manning, will get the chance to appeal the judge's decision

‘I find it absolutely incredible that the law would say you are going to take a child out of a family, the only family this child has ever known,’ she said.

Adoption lawyer Michael Shorstein told WJXX-TV that the family should have built a case against Mr Coleman before taking him on in court.

‘The only home, the only person this child she has ever known, she's being ripped away from to be put with a stranger,’ he said.

Ms Manning will get the chance to appeal the judge’s decision or report the case to the Department of Child and Family Services.