Whatever to the likely dads?

Three years ago today four men climbed on to Bristol's best-known landmark to make their protest heard about the family justice system. VICKI MATHIAS spoke to the Fathers 4 Justice campaigners to find out just how far the fight went for them

They are an unlikely bunch of superheroes, but the four men who scaled the Clifton Suspension Bristol on February 2, 2004, had big ideas about the way fathers should be treated.
Drivers crossing the bridge during the morning rush hour were confronted by the sight of Superman, Spiderman, Batman and Robin looking down on them from on top of the tower on the Leigh Woods side.

It was an unexpected stunt, and one that later caused traffic mayhem when the bridge was closed to vehicles, but it captured the attention of the public and the worldwide media.
The bridge protest was Fathers 4 Justice's first big announcement to the world of their aims. Similar stunts took place over the next few months, but it was the Clifton event that really highlighted the plight of the men campaigning for the right to see their children.
There had been demonstrations and marches in the 14 months leading up to the suspension bridge stunt, but it was this action that catapulted the movement into the forefront of the public's imagination.

None of the men realised just how big the protest would become. They expected that maybe a handful of people would see them, that their picture might appear in the Evening Post and there might be a piece on one of the regional television stations.

They never expected the response they got and the non-stop round of interviews that followed.
Three of the four men who climbed on to the bridge that day have now been able to sort access arrangements to see their children, and for them the whole process was worthwhile. But for Pat Lennon the fight still continues and he is now preparing to return to the campaign route.
The four men who climbed on to the bridge that day can be summed up as reasonably quiet, normal men. They were united in their fight, which spurred them to act in a way they might once never have imagined.

In recalling the events of February 2004 there is an apparent fondness for the camaraderie that they displayed.

The operation of February 2, 2004, was dreamed up in a Downend pub.
Despite claims by the police that it was a military-style operation, the campaigners deny this.
They drove up in Jason Hatch's works van with a ladder on the roof and, after attempting to climb up the tower while the others were holding the ladder secure, they found that a hatch was open. The people who got caught up in the rush-hour chaos that ensued may not have seen the funny side as the bridge was closed for much of the 27-hour protest.
One man who did not get the chance to stand on the tower that day, but played an integral role in the protest, was Jeff Skinner, now 40, of Downend.

He was the man who introduced the idea of the suspension bridge as a location and stood in the cold speaking to the country's media while the others were perched precariously on the tower.
At the time the group had only been going for a few months in Bristol.
Jeff said: "The suspension bridge was the first direct action in Bristol. There were other Fathers 4 Justice protests across the country that day and we thought we would play a small part in a bigger picture. It didn't quite work out that way."

After first getting involved in the group in 2003, Jeff went on to represent himself in court, until he eventually won the fight to see his two daughters, now 10, and eight, and even started to advise other fathers of their legal rights.

"It's not what you'd expect of someone who left school with a CSE in pottery," said Jeff.
F4J was formed by Matt O'Connor in 2002 to campaign for equal parenting, family law reform and equal contact for divorced parents with children. High-profile protests continued with Jason Hatch climbing on to a ledge at Buckingham Palace and another similar stunt at the Big Brother House in January 2005.