Fathers 4 Justice campaigner jailed for Herne Hill MP home protest

12:45pm Thursday 13th November 2008

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A fathers’ rights protestor who scaled deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman’s Herne Hill home dressed as a super hero has been jailed for two months.

John Paul Stanesby, 41, and Mark Harris, 46, both from south Devon, spent more than 24 hours on the roof of the Cabinet Minister's home in Winterbrook Road on June 8.

Dressed as superheroes "Captain Conception" and "Cash Gordon" the protestors from campaign group Fathers 4 Justice unfurled a banner from a bedroom window reading "A Father is for life, not just conception".

The campaigners said they intended to remain at the property until the minister read Mark Harris's book, Family Court Hell, and the Government started dialogue with the campaign group about doing more to protect fathers in the family courts.

At City of Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday Stanesby, who was found guilty of causing distress and alarm and refusing to obey a police officer, was jailed for two months, fined £250 and ordered to pay £500 costs.

Harris was found guilty of causing distress and alarm and was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £500 in costs.

A Fathers 4 Justice spokesman threatened further protest from the group at Mrs Harman’s home, as well as the home of Gordon Brown’s constituency of in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, in response to the sentences.