An MP is campaigning for a change in the law to exempt a Bradford mother, who was raped by her husband, from paying maintenance to their two children.

Paul Truswell, MP for Pudsey, has written to Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling asking for a review of Child Support Agency procedures after he was approached by the woman for help.

The 43-year-old, from the Bradford area, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made legal history after successfully suing her former husband for rape when the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to pursue the case.

She eventually won £14,000 damages but fears she will eventually have to hand it back in maintenance for her two teenage sons after losing an appeal against the CSA.

The CSA has ordered her to pay £199.77 a month for two of her three children - aged 14 and 16 - who still live with their father.

Mr Truswell believes a new exemption clause should be introduced to allow for the exceptional circumstances which led to the woman, who has since remarried, to leave her children.

At present the parent who is not living with the children is pursued by the CSA for maintenance payments.

The MP said: "My constituent was forced out of her home by the most appalling sexual assault by her former husband.

"The effects of the assault are also relevant to the reasons why she did not subsequently assume permanent custody of any of her children.

"I do believe that it would be legitimate to review CSA procedures so that they can take account of such extreme circumstances, where the parent without care has been forced into this situation without any means of control over it."

In an earlier correspondence Baroness Hollis of Heigham, the Under-secretary of State, told Mr Truswell that it was not right for non-residential parents to avoid their responsibilities to their children "because of problems in their relationship" with the parent with care.

The woman's new husband, who also cannot be identified, said: "The CSA is just using the normal everyday rules in what is a quite exceptional case.

"Whilst they apply to my wife as an everyday parent, they take no account of the way she was treated by her former husband and the reason she had to leave the family home."