A group of fathers, many of them disgruntled at losing custody or visiting rights to their children, are reported to be gathering outside the homes of several Family Court judges at weekends, making a protest with placards and megaphones. They are doing themselves no good.
If they are hoping to present themselves to the public as men of reasonable, responsible, restrained temperament — the sort who can be trusted with the care of children — they are going the wrong way about it.
They are demonstrating an inability to accept the carefully considered decision of an independent judge who will have given them their right to a fair hearing and weighed up the best interests of their children. It may be the decisions against them have more to do with their problems with the children's mother than with the children themselves but in any case, the children's interests would have been paramount for the court.
Doubtless, the demonstrating fathers disagree about what constitutes a child's best interests and believe they know their children best. But they should get a grip of themselves, consider the fact that a dispassionate person has looked at their family's difficulties, met and listened to all the people concerned, and made an objective decision. If they believe the decision to be seriously wrong, there will be better courses available to them than protesting outside the judge's home.
There have been no reports of trespass or damage to property but the police or the judges themselves are sufficiently concerned to have the police monitor the protests. The Law Society's family law section chairwoman, Kirsty Swadling, finds it disturbing that judges, "are being threatened whether implicitly or directly in this way, including their families".
