Fathers 4 Justice (F4J) is an organisation set up in the UK by absent fathers to campaign for a change in the law to give fathers an automatic right to have their children following the breakdown of their marriage. Their campaigns mainly involve fathers dressing up as super heroes and climbing onto buildings or bridges and causing as much disruption as possible. All they want, they say, is equal rights for fathers.
What they don't tell you is the other side of their campaign - the danger that some children will be in if their campaign is successful. Judges and politicians have already started siding with fathers under the pressure of their campaign. As a father I can understand their motivation but as a father of two step children with a less than desirable natural father I can also see, first hand, the danger of their campaign.
Case Study #1: Leanne Buttery & Kissland Dennis
Kissland Dennis attacked his 8 months pregnant girlfriend Leanne Buttery and killed their unborn baby. He has 12 children and she is pregnant with his child again. He has been put in prison for 10 years. When his sentence is up (British justice is crap so he'll probably end up serving about 5 or 6) he has very little chance of seeing his children as the law stands now. If F4J get their way he'll have an automatic right to see his children.
Case Study #2: Me
I am a father of four - the two eldest children being step children. My wife eventually left her ex-husband because of years of violence and abuse. A few days after they split up he assaulted her in the street in broad daylight while she was holding the two children and then drove off drunk with the youngest who was one at the time. This pretty much set the scene for the last 4 years which have basically been 4 years of various levels of abuse and violence. Not content with the usual direct methods of abuse, he used the time he spent with the children during contact mentally abusing them and neglecting them to the extent that they are scared to see him. A year ago we stopped contact after an incident where he brought the children home late, was abusive on the doorstep, banged the youngest one's head off the wall in his rage, threatened to abduct the children and kill me and then kicked me. He has been trying to get contact again ever since.
We had to go to court on Monday and we were warned in advance that he stood a good chance of getting direct contact because of the F4J campaign. Luckily, the judge and CAFCASS person listened to the tape recording of the last time he saw them and said he couldn't have direct contact. They also expressed concern over the content of letters he's sent them, one of which told them about a friend of his who died after falling off some scaffolding and impaling himself on some railings. The children don't even know the person he was talking about. Anyway, he can apply again in 6 months time to see them and we have to go through it all again. If F4J get their way he will have an automatic right to see the children.
I have emailed F4J telling them all this (I copy+pasted most of this from my email) and the damage their campaign is already doing. They haven't replied to me and it's been a couple of weeks now. So there you have it, they know their campaign will put some children in danger but they don't appear to give a damn.
My sponsored diet will be up on the 11th of April. I'll be carrying on myself but I needed a cut-off date for people to sponsor me.
So far, I've got £20 in hard cash and about £75 in pledges. If I manage to lost another 7lb in the next couple of weeks it'll be about another £20 on top of that.