'My life is on hold...it's a living death'

JASON HATCH, 30, a self-employed builder from Cheltenham, says that he has never recovered from the day he came home from his job in London three years ago to find that his wife had moved out with their children, both aged under 7.

"We had had a disagreement about my working away from home and she said she did not see enough of me.I had agreed to find work closer to home. She never discussed leaving with the kids. It came as a complete surprise," Mr Hatch claimed.

His said that his wife initially prevented him from seeing the children at all and refused to go to mediation or to speak to him.

He applied to the courts hoping to get to see the children every weekend and during half of the school holidays. It took him 18 months before he was allowed supervised visits at a contact centre once every three months. Later he got a court order giving him supervised contact once every three weeks.

"My life is on hold until I can see my children properly. A lot of fathers call it a living bereavement."

He is now applying for equal contact. He believes that his lengthy and painful court battle could have been avoided if mediation sessions were compulsory.

Minster mayhem

Fathers' rights protesters storm altar and scale walls

PROTESTERS for the rights of fathers fought with churchmen yesterday as they stormed a service at York Minster.
Two other men scaled scaffolding on the building and unfurled a banner.

The chaotic scenes at the General Synod service were witnessed by the two most senior figures in the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope.Dressed as vicars, nuns and monks, a dozen campaigners for Fathers 4 Justice smashed a door and grappled with stewards in an attempt to hijack the high altar.
A glass panel was broken and a statue of the Virgin Mary smashed. Some of the protesters burst through the melee and rushed up the nave towards the altar.

Matt O'Connor, the protest's leader, was brought crashing to the ground by a rugby tackle from a steward. He was dragged out, shouting: 'Shame on you.

Justice for fathers.' Punches were thrown as the demonstrators tried to escape the grip of stewards. Eight made it to the altar where they linked arms and tried to halt the service.
Dr Williams told them: 'This won't do you any good, you know.' The congregation of 1,000 defiantly continued with a hymn, There's a Wideness in God's Mercy, and the Minster organist tried to drown out chants - until the Archbishop tried a different tack.

He offered the protesters two minutes to make their point, and Mr O'Connor was allowed to say from the lectern: 'We are here in the name of fathers, in the name of justice, in the name of our children and in the name of love, to ask how in the name of religion the Church would allow 100 children a day to lose contact with their fathers?

'Where are you? You have failed fathers and you have failed children.' The congregation emerged from the service to find that two demonstrators had taken advantage of the chaos inside to climb the Minster.

Jason Hatch, 28, a painter and decorator from Cheltenham, was dressed in cardinal's robes, while Andy James, 34, from Cardiff, was wearing a vicar's smock.

They stayed there for some ten hours before coming down, when they were arrested.
Earlier police had taken away another 12 demonstrators for questioning.

County will be brought to standstill

Activists are threatening to strike Gloucester Docks, Gloucestershire Airport, RAF Fairford and Kemble Airfield, the M4 and M5 and train stations throughout the county. The group's aim is to bring mass disruption and economic damage to the UK. Campaigners have given ministers one month to respond to their 50-page document, called A Blueprint for Family Law in the 21st Century.

Underlining the need for urgent, radical reform of family law, it demands separated parents have equal contact with their children, wants allegations by mothers to be properly investigated and calls for governing bodies to be accountable for decisions in family law courts.
Tony Blair was given the document on June 25 and Fathers 4 Justice is threatening to start its campaign of disruption on July 23.

Jason Hatch, from Cheltenham, the group's national co-ordinator and operations manager, said: "We've distributed the blueprint to Tony Blair and all relevant politicians. They have a month to respond or we'll be forced to take action.

"We've already looked at ways of bringing the ports, train stations, motorways and airports to a standstill. I have a list as long as my arm where we would like to strike.

"The gloves are off and the country will be effectively closed down unless we are listened to.
"The economic damage that will be caused if we are not listened to is not something the Government would want so they will have to sit up and take notice.

"There are a lot of innocent people who will be affected but there are a lot of innocent dads out there who have been affected deeply because they have been unable to see their children.
"We would rather not go to these lengths but we've got to a stage now where we've got nothing to lose."