Fathers' Rights Campaigns

Fathers’ Rights Groups have once again been a popular talking point in the family law world. Their campaigns, to say the very least, have been extremely controversial and have made headline news a number of times over the last few years and to date, this has not changed.

The Independent reported that In January 2014, Tim Haries, a Fathers 4 Justice activist, was found guilty of defacing an oil painting of the Queen by spraying the word ‘help’ on it with purple paint, after being denied contact with his children. The painting was worth £160,000 and was displayed in Westminster Abbey. In his statement, Tim Haries said the following:

“My actions were a direct appeal to the Queen to ask her to intervene on behalf of our children in what I believe is the social justice issue of our time.”

“I believe that contact denial is a hate crime and an abuse of a child’s fundamental human rights to their father. I also believe that each of us has a moral responsibility to prevent this from happening and to draw attention to the social catastrophe that is mass fatherlessness”.

“It is a pity that the law does not respect or recognise me as a father”.

The Daily Mail reported that in the same month, Tim Line, an activist of Real Fathers for Justice (a Fathers 4 Justice splinter group) was found guilty of harassment after he set up a website for the purpose of posting negative comments about his ex-wife’s solicitor. On the website, Tim Line essentially blamed the solicitor for delaying his divorce battle with his ex-wife whereby he lost custody of his three daughters. Tim Line was given a four week prison sentence (suspended for two years) and the Court also imposed a restraining Order and a costs Order of £480 against him.