A convicted paedophile serving 10 years jail for molesting four girls, including two of his daughters, sent the daughters Christmas cards and a letter from prison.
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The correspondence prompted one woman's husband, the prisoner's son-in-law, to write an open letter describing the distress it has caused the two sisters.
The husband writes that although it seemed the prisoner, 76, was allowed to contact them, "you would have realised from our very clear victim impact statements that we did not want you to.
"Surely continual contact by a paedophile to his victims classifies as harassment? I can attest to the distress that these latest communications from you have caused my wife and sister."
He also described the prisoner trying to "friend" his own daughter on Facebook four years ago, and receiving via email photos of a grandchild while in prison.
"All private remonstrations with you to cease and desist have failed," the husband wrote.
"Any attempted contact by you after this will most definitely be seen as harassment and a continuation of the abuse that sees you in your current circumstances."
The convicted paedophile, who has not been named to protect the identity of his victims, was jailed after a jury found him guilty of abusing the four girls between the 1970s and 1990s.
He lost an appeal last year.
A spokeswoman from Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury's office said on Monday the women were not on the prisoner's no-contact list and there was no other order preventing him from writing to them.
She said prison officials had since been in contact with the family, and the situation was being rectified.
The husband described to The Canberra Times an opt-in system in which individuals can write to the Alexander Maconochie Centre and ask that a prisoner's letters not be forwarded on.
But he said given that several of the prisoner's grandchildren were under 18 they found the requirement "troublesome".
"The issue is that he can send mail to whomever he pleases unless individual written requests are made for them to be intercepted," he said.
President of the ACT Human Rights Commission, Dr Helen Watchirs, said she was concerned the family members believed they were on a no-contact list and the situation needed to be made clear to victims.
"In this type of crime it seems fairly obvious that they do not want to be contacted," she said.
She said communications from a prisoner to their victim could re-traumatise the victim.
Dr Watchirs said positive obligations, such as on the government to inform victims of a particular situation rather than putting the onus on the victims, was prime for inclusion in the charter for the rights of victims of crime currently being developed.
The convicted paedophile's letter begins by saying he knows he has hurt his family and he is sorry.
The letter is then largely devoted to describing numerous complaints about life in prison.
He describes, for example, being among the oldest in the prison and having difficulty sleeping.
He also describes boredom and limited "free time".
He ends by asking the family to support his wife, who he says has paid "the greatest price for my transgressions" and who shares his punishment.
