O’Connor and May would later have a heated dispute after a television interview during which he claimed she had undergone a ‘Damascene’ conversion and now supported shared parenting after earlier refusing to back it. The Bill did not contain a single one of her election promises to Fathers4Justice including, critically, the commitment to shared parenting. I hope I do not have to wait for too long for this to happen. If not for me but for her Grandmother who fears that she will not live long enough to see her grand-daughter again. Yet, the father’s mental health can influence the mother, the infant, the family and society. Today, Matt O’Connor and Fathers4Justice remain defiant, committed to ensuring that automatic parental responsibility for dads, and a legal presumption of 50/50 shared parenting and child support, becomes law by the end of the decade. He began to drink heavily and became suicidal, unable to cope with events as his life spiraled out of control. Shortly after, F4J committed to pursuing a political campaign. The event attracted widespread media coverage in the Scottish press. They also confirmed for the first time, the existence of a recruitment programme that enlisted “stakeholders” and “information resources” to gather intelligence about O’Connor and F4J. On Father’s Day 2012, F4J staged a barefoot protest, walking from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street. In March 2015, in the run up to the 2015 General Election, Fathers4Justice was subject to further Tory smears, this time by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who claimed in the Evening Standard and Telegraph that F4J had climbed on the roof of his home. Again the first payment was £400, then £250 followed by my regular payments. This was followed by a protest on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. I was also told that I had already accrued arrears to the tune of £1500 for a claim that was supposedly only a week long. In February 2007, protestors scaled Stonehenge in protest about comments made by Tory leader David Cameron. In an increasingly murky world where the authorities were subverting the organisation, Matt temporarily disbanded the campaign, and in doing so, secured even more front-page coverage for F4J. In May 2012, Matt was again banned from entering London during the State Opening of Parliament. When Ms Harman arrived in the city two protesters holding banners started haranguing her about the last Labour government’s changes to family law, saying they discriminated against men. Founded in 2001, the group aims to gain public and parliamentary support for changes in UK legislation on fathers' rights, mainly using stunts and protests, often conducted in costume. “They took away my children, my home, my dignity and my self-respect. Fearlessly honest and utterly irreverent Matt's own story will appeal to anyone whose family relationships have been torn to pieces by divorce and the family courts system. Remarkably, no one was charged over the incident, despite graphic photographic and video evidence published in the media. Fathers 4 Justice have become well-known for their publicity stunts. The campaign has persuaded politicians from across the political spectrum to accept that shared parenting is responsible parenting, and will lead to better outcomes for our children, our families and our country. Turning his back on the court, as Matt walked out, a court welfare officer pleaded with him not to walk away. Matt and the campaign also featured in two BBC Programmes, a BBC Newsnight Special and the People Power Documentary. Fathers Day is spent either at work, on a Fathers 4 Justice March or locked in my room crying over her. On April 27th, George Galloway, Matt O’Connor, Irish writer John Waters and ex-EastEnders star Mo George joined a platform of speakers at a public meeting, “London: The Fatherless Capital”, to debate the issues of fathers and fatherlessness. Fathers 4 Justice has distanced itself from what it called a "grotesque" plan. He was later interviewed by Piers Morgan and Amanda Platell on their Saturday night show on Channel 4 after Home Secretary David Blunkett was denied access to his son. In 2008 I was diagnosed with Leukaemia. Watch the report MATT O'CONNOR: (Fathers for Justice) This campaign will change. Just days later, on the 10th anniversary of his forming Fathers 4 Justice, Matt staged an eight-day hunger strike outside the Prime Minister’s home. One followed the publication of alarming figures about the death rates of non-resident fathers after separation, the other called for the creation of a Minister For Men to address the public health crisis facing men and boys. The former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, Tim Loughton, claimed in an article he wrote for the Guardian, that when he was a Minister the group threatened to target his family home. The scale of the abuse is on an unimaginable scale. Later that year, he sold the motion picture rights to his life story to the Disney-owned Miramax Pictures. In September 2005, F4J campaigner Guy Harrison scaled the Houses of Parliament on his daughter’s birthday in protest at the continuing lack of action by the government, just over a year after he had powder-bombed the Prime Minister. In November 20006, before the State Opening of Parliament, Matt and other activists received a letter from Scotland Yard claiming that their “personal safety could not be guaranteed” if they entered London on that day. I split from her mother in May 1998, and for the first year there were no real issues regarding contact. Counter Terrorism Command subsequently insisted on interviewing Matt in Romsey, Hampshire, to interrogate him about his future plans. If it’s not set up straight away then they will make up any amount of arrears they want and force you to pay it, tacking on their mystery charges at the same time. In June 2016, the group launched the campaign in Ireland and announced the start of a Child Support Strike when they stormed the Loose Women studio, forcing the show off air. Campaign staged on Palace balcony. Fathers4Justice was founded by Matt O’Connor in 2001 after he was denied access to his two boys, Daniel and Alexander, following a difficult divorce. So what drives this group's strategy? The group relaunched in May 2006 with a protest on the BBC’s National Lottery show in front of 10 million viewers, led by Nadine O’Connor. That same year, his efforts as a campaigner were recognised in the media. Then her mother started ignored my attempts at communicating with them. They told me that they would call my ex and get it set up. In September, Batman protestor Jason Hatch staged one of the groups biggest protests on the royal balcony at Buckingham Palace. The story, which Matt said was in the public interest and had been kept secret from the public since 2004, illustrated how the Leo Blair kidnap story had been manufactured. The following day, Matt wrote a comment piece for The Sun Newspaper. https://www.fathers-4-justice.org/2016/09/sos-viagra-sausages-launched-part-mens-health-campaign/. I refused and told them to do their job and get the direct pay set up like they were supposed to. Record conversations with them if you can. Book your F4J Case Assessment today, MARRIAGE MANTRAP: Did stress of divorce from bridezilla Nicole Young + her demands for $2m monthly spousal support…, F4J LOCKDOWN UPDATE: The children of separated parents CAN travel between households during lockdown. Remember that word forced, it comes up quite a lot where the CSA are concerned. It’s heartbreaking, knowing that your child is out there somewhere and you can’t see them is like a living bereavement and I thank my lucky stars that I have the most amazing support from my family, and in particular from my loving partner Lynda to help me through these hard times. In an interview with John Peel on Radio 4’s Home Truths, Matt later described his life at the time as “like ground zero”. Matt followed this up with a comment piece in The Telegraph, “It’s time we recognised that a father’s love is just as important as a mother’s.”. This was followed by one of F4J’s last direct action protests, when superheroes Jolly Stanesby and Mark Harris scaled the roof of Harriet Harman’s home in South London before Father’s Day. Fast forward to April 2013 and I got a call from a blocked number on my mobile. They’re not. In 2001, after what he described as an “epiphany” on Waterloo Bridge, Matt decided that instead of jumping off bridges, dads could aspire to start climbing them, and the idea of Fathers4Justice was born. Matt later credited Nadine with saving his life. O’Connor later said that if the story had been true, it was unthinkable it would have been printed, citing a serious incident involving Blair’s daughter Kathryn in 2004. Fair enough I thought, she doesn’t want my money, I’d done what I can. In December 2015, Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service appointed Government solicitors to represent them in court. In July, protestors dressed as priests stormed York Minster during a service in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the General Synod. Despite the resolution of his own case, Matt founded Fathers4Justice, a campaign born out of his love for his children, and his fear that one day they might suffer the same injustice as him – what he called a “living bereavement” – when they became fathers. The intruder has been named as Jason Hatch. We will never get back those 12 years, 12 years of heartbreak and hurt. Hi, this is for my as level politics presentation, our aim is to do a presentation of a pressure group of our choice, my team have decided to do fathers 4 justice in the UK. Despite repeated requests for the NSPCC to investigate these cases, they have refused to do so and have turned a blind eye to what may become the biggest child abuse scandal in our nations history. In January 2016, another Tory MP made false allegations against Fathers4Justice. I set up a direct debit with them and they took the £400 and £250 anyway. 555 likes. If you have a…. All Visual Materials, Names, Content and Intellectual Property Copyright © Fathers4Justice 2019. The groups iconic protests garnered worldwide publicity for a cause shrouded in secrecy by the courts and ignored by the political and religious elite. Nokes then began making a series of false allegations about the campaign, in an attempt to distract attention away from her broken promises and discredit Fathers4Justice. It's terrible to be able to name and shame like this when the other half of the partnership can't give their side of the story. They told me I would be paying £191 a month, but the first payment would be £400 and the second would be £250. I now have the money coming direct from my wage and after two years I’m finally paying what I was supposed to be paying in the first place. 2015: F4J wins more political support before the General Election, but is subject to further smears by the Tory Party. 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