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Fathers 4 Justice campaigners vow to target Archbishop

February 19, 2007, The (York) Press (UK)---RADICAL pressure group Fathers 4 Justice is planning "a wave of spectacular guerrilla protests" at York Minster and Bishopthorpe Palace, The Press can reveal today. Campaigners say they will return to the city - the scene of their infamous 2004 protest - to demand that the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, boosts the profile of fathers' rights.

Fathers 4 Justice founder Matt O'Connor said: "John Sentamu promised to publicly raise the issue of family breakdown and fatherlessness with me in a meeting in December 2005. He has failed to deliver on that commitment and I'm now travelling to York to cash that promise in."

Dr Sentamu is away in Tanzania, but his spokesman said Fathers 4 Justice were "pushing at an open door" - and their campaign suggested that they "still had some way to go with regards to behaving responsibly".

The group gave no indication as to what form any action would take - but one of their previous York protests saw campaigners dressed as monks, vicars and nuns run amok at a service in the Minster. The episode, on July 11, 2004, left a glass door shattered and a steward nursing minor injuries. Two protesters camped on the roof of the cathedral for 11 hours. However, further threats made by the group in April 2006 never materialised.

Today, Fathers 4 Justice spokesman Martin Cottrell said members from across the country would come to York on Thursday, March 1, for a meeting to mark the "national re-launch" of the campaign - but attendance was strictly by booking in advance. The meeting would be a "national springboard for a tour of the UK in the coming weeks".

Fathers 4 Justice protest in April 2004
Mr Cottrell said the group now had "no alternative other then to launch a new wave of spectacular guerrilla protests at York Minster and Bishopthorpe Palace, residency of the Archbishop of York". Mr O'Connor said Dr Sentamu was "fond of speaking out about issues such as the war in Lebanon, terrorism and Guantanamo Bay. But what about the needs and priorities of his own flock here in York?"

Dr Sentamu's spokesman said: "The Archbishop of York is in favour of fathers both being given responsibility and taking responsibility. Fathers 4 Justice really need to do their homework before proposing attacks on those who support their wider cause."

City no stranger to protesters
Fathers 4 Justice first targeted York in April 2004, when protestors wearing decontamination suits hurled buckets of water at the Fishergate branch of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. Six masked protesters took part in the "decontamination attack" to "clean up" the Government agency. Later that year, the then Archbishop of York Dr David Hope looked on as campaigners disrupted the General Synod's showpiece Sunday service at the Minster.

Nationwide, other stunts have involved hurling purple powder missiles at Tony Blair during Prime Minister's Questions, scaling the walls of Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman, and even storming the Celebrity Big Brother house. The group was disbanded on January 18, 2006, amid allegations of a plot to kidnap the Prime Minister's son. However, in April 2006 the re-launched group announced plans to wreck Dr Sentamu's Easter Sunday service. That threat never materialised.

At the time, international campaign co-ordinator Andy Work said: "The most likely reason is that either the guys' physical safety was threatened, or they decided there was too high a risk of getting arrested."