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Fathers 4 Justice, UK2006-01-18 F4J.UK, Matt O'Connor and Hollywood:Posted by: Lloyd Belle, Nottingham 18 Jan 2006 22:35:13Firstly, allow me to put myself in context. I am a father who once believed the rumours about the Family Courts to be exaggerated - then it came my turn and I learned a terrible lesson. I now have a criminal record after being accused of buying my young child a packet of sweets after attending a GP surgery after receiving a frantic phone call from his mother regarding his health and being given the time to be there. Further allegations arose from my reply to her informing me that she was unilaterally breaking contact (against an established and agreed court order) - my crime... I calmly and simply indicated that she could not take the law into her own hands. To cut a long story short on the basis of the above one court severed my contact with my child on the grounds that my behavior as detailed above illustrated I was grooming him to be a woman hater - I was banned from contact with him for life unless I confessed, signed a document to such effect, visited a psychologist, took anger management and a few other things. Oh yes, the best of it all - the magistrate stated "the most damning evidence against this man is the total lack or evidence". OH, almost forgot.. "a mother cannot lie". Now there is a fair hearing and justice for you!!! On the back of this the court appearances continued. An
appeal resulted in a judge declaring me guilty BEFORE hearing a word of my
defence. He further ordered my barrister to 'be silent' or he would imprison
me immediately when said barrister tried to present a defence (according to
the criminal Case Review Commission this is a perfectly fair way to conduct a
secret, non-jury trial). He stated in court that I did not have ANY Human
Rights. And in the end he stated that "I do not like this man.. he has an
answer for every question" - which of course, you would if you were telling
the truth.. Many comments slagging off women - all women. Endless stories of sexual conquests. To be told that numerous events criticised by F4J were actually organised by F4J. Mr O'Connor came across as extremely arrogant and uncaring about anyone except himself and his mates. Mr O'Connor also indicated that he wanted to get out of F4J and had plans to do so around Dec 2005. In regard to the 'Leo story'. There was an off-the-cuff remark (at least that is what I took it as) that one Tony Blair would behave differently if he lost access to his own kids - Leo was specifically mentioned. I thought nothing more of this until today. For you see, I have been following F4J, rather their structure and finances with interest. That is partly why I was expelled. Look at the Company's House records and you find that F4J is WHOLLY OWNED by one Matt O'Connor - 100% his... That is HE owns the lot.. HE owns the money in the bank account.. HE owns all company assets.. and so on. I have heard numerous complaints from members around the country that F4J central office takes in ALL the membership funds and has left many regional co-ordinators to pick up the monthly running costs of the regional branches themselves. I DO NOT HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT F4J HAD ANY PLAN TO KIDNAP LEO BLAIR. I DO BELIEVE THAT THIS IS YET ANOTHER MANIPULATIVE MOVE ON THE PART OF MR O'CONNOR AND A FEW OTHERS TO KILL F4J OFF AND ASSET STRIP THE BANK ACCOUNTS ETC.. FOR THEIR OWN GAINS - OR TO COVER THEIR TRACKS. WILL WE NEXT HEAR OF F4J HAVING BEEN RIPPED OFF BY SOME NAMELESS, FACELESS SOUL WHO LEFT AN (AGAIN) UNSUSPECTING MR O'CONNOR TO FACE THE PRESS?? The cause put forward for F4J was, and is, just. Unfortunately, those who run the organisation are not worthy of the position. Indeed, if you re-read the first part of this post in regard of myself - never mind the involvement of children - how would you feel about being picked up off the street on the say-so of someone who has a personal interest in hurting you. How would you feel when you get your day in court and honestly believe that Justice will be served and you will be heard - only to have happen to you, that which happened to me? These unaccountable Judges, and virtually recordless secret courts where a single individual is judge, jury and 'executioner' must be opened up. Lives, adult and child, are being destroyed by secrecy, bias, and yes I dare say a fair amount of corruption in the Judiciary. FIRST AND FOREMOST THE AUTHORITIES MUST CLOSELY EXAMINE MR O'CONNORS PERSONAL AND BUSINESS ACCOUNTS AND THOSE OF F4J EXTREMELY CLOSELY. SECONDLY, THE AUTHORITIES MUST QUICKLY CORRECT THE DESTRUCTION BROUGHT TO FAMILIES BY THE SECRET FAMILY COURTS. I DO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS HARD TO BELIEVE IF YOU ARE NOT EXPERIENCING IT - I WAS ONCE THERE TOO. ALL I CAN ASK OF THE PUBLIC WHO READ THIS IS.. PLEASE THINK, PLEASE PUT YOURSELF IN OUR POSITION. YES, NOT ALL FATHERS ARE GOOD FATHERS.. THEN AGAIN NOT ALL MOTHERS ARE GOOD MOTHERS, BUT I DON'T BRAND ALL MOTHERS AND WOMEN THE SAME AS THE AGRESSIVE MOTHER OF MY CHILD. BUT HAVE YOU EVER SAT IN A ROOM WITH A SOCIAL WORKER AND BEEN WARNED NEVER TO APPROACH THE AUTHORITIES AGAIN WITH EVIDENCE OF UNEXPLAINED HEAVY BRUSING ON A LITTLE CHILD, COS YOU MAKE IT APPEAR THAT IT WAS THE MOTHER, THAT SOCIAL WORKERS DO NOT DEEM IT POSSIBLE FOR MOTHERS TO DO SUCH, AND THAT IF YOU DO BRING UP SUCH MATTERS AGAIN THEY WILL MAKE SURE YOU END UP IN PRISON? The Nation doesn't know the half of it.. sadder still the Nation doesn't seem to want to know. I only want to see Justice and fairness protect our kids. Tony Blair and Co are apathetic like most in the UK about these issues. In that manner I suppose he is my opponent. However, I will stand side-by-side with Mr. Blair and protect HIS son with all my might as I would protect my own. The issues are in the adult realm, the children should NEVER be drawing into a conflict. It just saddens me that Mr. Blair doesn't give a damn about my child - but that, I suppose, is politicians for you! But to finish off, the cause of F4J was right, the top man and his mates, in my humble opinion, need a seriously close legal examination - AND SOON! God save our children - 'cos Tony Blair and our so called
Justices won't. Dear Friend, Please, spare a few minutes to read this short open letter.As I sit here and write I have just come back from taking some time out to recover from an exhausting first year and a half of Fathers 4 Justice. Nothing in my life prepared me for what has been a shocking and profoundly upsetting experience which I don't mind admitting has had a deep effect on me. The relentless stories of suffering, the suicide calls, grown men breaking down in tears on the phone, the deaths, the cries for help that we couldn't answer in time - yet every story is nigh on identical. It is about parents separated from their children by the Family Courts. On my return to an office, some of you questioned our tactics in flour bombing the Prime Minister. I can tell you that this was a carefully planned action in a coordinated strategic campaign by Fathers 4 Justice. It is one of many and I personally sanctioned it. I gave us 3 years to change the law when I started F4J. We are now at a half way point yet no political party has picked up, adopted or fought for our children's rights to see both parents. Justice is left in our hands. As a result of intense lobbying and our exhibition at the Tory conference last year, EVERY POLITICIAN, OF EVERY PARTY, IS AWARE OF THE DAILY ABUSE OF OUR CHILDREN BY THE FAMILY LEGAL SYSTEM. And now also, everybody across the globe has heard of Fathers 4 Justice. Without radical action, without mobilising an army of 20,000 parents - which after last weeks events appears to be a stunning possibility, we cannot create the change we need. That change cannot come from within the system. Civil rights history teaches us that the politicians are always the last to 'fall' as the dynamics of social change are powered by unique protest engines like F4J. The politicians didn't much like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi let alone Jesus Christ! But their tactics and strategy of law breaking was instrumental, as ours will be, in felling the giant redwood of injustice. And when the family law tree is felled, it will take the years of pain, misery and abject suffering with it. So I cannot stand by and let our children and our children's children be failed by our politicians, our Parliament or our democracy especially given the urgency of our campaign. We simply have no time to lose yet others still persist in a policy of jaw jaw. Wake up! We are at war, a peaceful war but a war still the same. Some may criticise our tactics but the real venom should be reserved for the politicians who day in day out, knowingly allow this to happen without lifting a finger to remedy the situation. The only condemnation can be of this democracy and a Pugin designed Ivory Tower filled with barristers, many of whom have their fingers in the till in the first place. Barrister Blair, Charlie Falconer, Michael Howard......the list goes on. And before anybody starts moralising let us not forget that the party of the Prime Minister, the Labour Party was born of law breakers. The Tolpuddle Martyr's, the banning of the Labour Party at one point, the Trade Union movement. So why this pious indignation about a condom filled with purple flour? Our democracy was forged by law breakers, the suffragettes and others. Lord Hoffman who currently sits in the House of Lords recently said 'we have a long and honourable tradition of law breaking in this country.' Have we forgotten our history? Fathers 4 Justice is now making history by being part of that tradition. My duty - and your duty - should be to ensure that the catastrophic consequences unfolding before our eyes of mass fatherlessness and family breakdown are addressed. This is a dysfunctional government creating dysfunctional families and a dysfunctional society. F4J is now even providing a social care function on some estates where fatherless kids are running out of control. We are being invited into schools to talk about our work and why the breakdown of the family is creating a culture of indiscipline in schools. I sat in a hospital recently amid the adult casualties of family breakdown. 'They f**k you up, your mum and dad' said Philip Larkin in 1974. Christ, and these were people pre the present system. In 2015 we can substitute the word government for mum and dad. This crisis strikes right at the very fabric of our nation and our democracy. We send fathers off to fight a phoney war on behalf of a country that does not even afford them that most basic of rights - the right to be a father. What is this? This is not my country, not the country that I believed in or the party I was born and raised on. I am honour bound, like many others to break the law, not least for my two boys. Fathers 4 Justice is committed to peaceful non violent direct action. We have 22 brave men and women facing trial, maybe imprisonment in the coming months. Like civil rights movements before us 'sacrifice' is the hub in the wheel of change. Guy Harding and Ron Davis are brave and courageous men who risked everything, whose homes were raided, whose liberty they laid on the line - for you, for me, and for our children. Your children, along with the many many others in F4J. It is a crying shame that so few of us are prepared to fight for our children and that is why for the last 30 years, for all the pathetic tea parties and back slapping in between, we will face another 30 years of injustice without the struggle of Fathers 4 Justice - ordinary dads doing extraordinary things. If you think we are wrong. I ask you to think again. I am
prepared to let history be our judge and I ask you to do the same A grandmother called our office a few weeks ago. She was
going in to hospital for a potentially life threatening operation to remove a
tumour. She was beside herself with uncontrollable grief on the phone. She
asked me what help I could give her to help her see her granddaughter through
the courts. Given the circumstances of the case the answer wasn't favourable.
I could barely reach the words at the back of my throat to speak to her. She
died the following week. |
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