http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=16747464%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26headline=fathers%2d4%2djustice%2ds%2dnoisy%2dprotest%2din%2dcity-name_page.html Fathers 4 Justice's noisy protest in city
Feb 25 2006
South Wales Echo Fathers 4 Justice campaigners swarmed through Cardiff city centre in costume saying they wanted 'to show we're still alive'.
A 30-strong group of the fathers' rights protesters mounted a noisy vigil outside the Civil Justice Street in Park Street from noon yesterday.
Many campaigners were dressed in traditional police helmets or Army surplus gear holding purple helium balloons and honking deafening air horns.
Lead campaigner Phil Davies, 43, from Swansea - whose teenage son was dressed as Osama bin Laden - said the aim was to show Fathers 4 Justice Wales was still going.
He said: 'We wanted to show that we're still alive and to send a message to the courts.'
Steve Bayliss, 34, of Pwllgwaun, Pontypridd, had donned a Batman costume with his four-year-old son Brandon dressed as Robin.
The South Wales Fire and Rescue service stores worker, who is going through his second custody battle for his younger child, said his aim was to make people realise there was a problem with family law.
He said: 'I think it's about raising awareness.
'You do get good fathers, you do get good mothers and there should be a starting point that is 50/50.'
The group decided not to try to scale the court building this time.
But Mr Davies said they were considering a repeat of their May 2004 protest when two men in Batman and Robin outfits perched on a 25ft-high ledge.
It was one of a series of high profile stunts including Santa Clauses disrupting the Wales Millennium Centre opening, Batman scaling Buckingham Palace, and purple flour thrown at Tony Blair in the House of Commons.
But the group has since suffered a string of publicity blows.
Lead Welsh campaigner Matthew Mudge was publicly outed last year as a convicted wife-beater.
Passer-by Jenny Graham, 35, a mum of two from Pontypool, said yesterday she thought most people were fed up with them.
She said: 'I wish they would just shut up and go home.' :roll:
