'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."

Dads' rights group in lock-out at court

The group, which has flour-bombed Prime Minister Tony Blair and scaled the Severn Bridge in Bristol dressed as superheroes, also chained up the gates of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services building in London Road. Police were called and attended the scenes with locksmiths to gain entry to the two buildings.

Jason Hatch, of Cheltenham, a spokesman for Fathers 4 Justice, said he did not know who had locked the doors, but added: "We have denied them access to the court building in the same way that they have denied us access to our children on Father's Day."We are promising a summer of mass disruption until the law is changed so that fathers have 50-50 presumption of contact with their children." Several members of the 7,500-strong group were due in court in Western-super-Mare today to answer charges relating to the Bristol incident.

A manager from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, in London Road, had arrived early to get some extra work done, only to find she could not get in.

She said: "It's so disruptive and it just gets in the way of our job. They are just shooting the messenger." Police spokeswoman Kate Nelmes said: "At 7.10am we received a call from the county court in Kimbrose Way saying that their doors had been padlocked.

"There was nobody there but it is believed that a calling card from the Fathers 4 Justice group was left.

"The back door had been superglued and is being treated as an offence of criminal damage and is being investigated." She appealed for anyone who may have seen what happened to call police on 0845 090 1234 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Fathers 4 Justice is a civil rights group which campaigns for the right of children to see both of their parents and grandparents.

They say that current children's laws protect only the mother in access issues, effectively working for their best interest rather than the child's.

Aggrieved dads stage bridge protest

Four members of pressure group Fathers-4-Justice have staged a protest on the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

The four men climbed on to a support at the Leigh Woods end of the bridge on Monday morning dressed as Batman, Robin, Superman and Spiderman.

At 0530 GMT, they unveiled a banner reading: "Fathers-4-Justice, Fighting for the right to see your kids."

Spokesman Jeff Skinner said the men apologised for any inconvenience to commuters who were denied access to the bridge.

"We and thousands of other fathers in this country are denied access to our children every day by this country's archaic family laws," he said.

" We apologise or any inconvenience but we haven't seen our children for years "

The protesters said they would be staying for the "foreseeable future", despite the poor weather.

The bridge has been closed to traffic, although not pedestrians.

On Monday afternoon, one of the four men - dressed as Superman - came down from the bridge and left the protest.

Last week another Fathers-4-justice member carried out a similar protest on Plymouth's Tamar bridge which lasted seven days.

It is thought that as many as 15 members of Fathers-4-Justice met in Bristol on Monday from the west Country, coming from Cheltenham, Swindon, Lyme Regis, Worcester, Gloucester and Bristol.

'Civil disruption'

One of the protesters, who gave his names as Jason, said: "We apologise or any inconvenience but we haven't seen our children for years.

"We've been fighting the law courts but getting absolutely nowhere."

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: "All efforts are being made to peacefully resolve the situation as quickly as possible, though there is no indication of when the protest will end."

On Monday, Fathers-4-Justice issued a statement saying that today's protests were the start of a "full-scale national campaign of civil disruption".