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MND: News and Commentary Since 2001 Fathers4Justice or Fathers4Judas? Father fears for his life.

Teri Stoddard
Fathers4Justice or Fathers4Judas? Father fears for his life.

April 17, 2006 at 2:03 pm · Filed under Vox Populi

Fearing for his life, Graham Manson, a Real Fathers for Justice activist, has gone into hiding. This comes after Matt O'Connor, founder of the original Fathers4Justice, linked him with the security forces in Northern Ireland. Denis Donaldson was shot dead after similiar allegations were made just two weeks ago.

A spokesperson for the Real Fathers for Justice sounded out, "In making these allegations Mr.O'Connor has put the lives of an innocent man and his family in danger. He knew perfectly well the implications of such an accusation. It seems there are no depths to which this man will not sink in order to manipulate the press and media. Even by his lowly standards, this is scraping the barrel. We only hope those with a vested interest will be able to see through this nonsense."

Peter Molloy, former Fathers4Justice member and now deputy party leader of the Equal Parenting Alliance told me, "The thing you have to remember with Matt O'Connor is that he is into marketing, so is good at spinning words…He is a man I would not trust to do business with." The Equal Parenting Alliance (EPA) is a newly formed party, as is O'Connor's Agents for Change.

Molloy added, "Because of his selfish desires, Matt O'Connor, has made it difficult for the decent fathers amongst us to actually achieve justice for our kids. O'Connor may well be best known for starting the fathers direct action, but he is also its destroyer."

"Since the early days of Fathers4Justice there have been concerns raised about Matt O'Connor's management of the organization. The major concern was over the organization's finances, which [O'Connor] was the only signatory to the account and there was no national treasurer," continued Molloy.

"When members pushed the issue of the organization's finances [O'Connor] would kick those members out of the organization, which happened to me," Molloy went on, "Matt O'Connor even kicked out the entire Liverpool branch from the organization in April 2004 when the Liverpool branch voted against him on why he kicked me out of the group."

O'Connor talks about fighting for truth, justice and equality in family law, but he never practiced what he preached and there was certainly no truth, justice or equality in F4J", said Molloy, "He treated his members like the family courts treats fathers, with contempt."

In this EADT24 article Matt O'Connor claims to have received "whispering phone calls", shortly after announcing his political party. He said they were threats, and assumes they were disgruntled ex-members of F4J. He states, "I am seriously concerned and have gone public about this now as the situation is intolerable but if anyone thinks they can intimidate me in this way, they had better think again."

When asked about O'Connor, David Chick, known for his superhero stunts as Spiderman, told me, "I was warning the F4J people that he was a fraud for the last couple of years, but as he was most people's best chance of helping them they stayed loyal to the judas - which they are all now regretting obviously."

In Chick's book Denied Access, he writes about, "[W]hat the sick evil system has done to me and my little girl over the last 5 years; I name and shame all the judges and cafcass scum that have violated and abused us, [and] there are some bits about O'Connor being what he is now proven to be."

In George Rolph's piece, Fathers4Justice: The Inside Story, he writes:

What is troubling those men and women who have risked everything for Mr. O'Connor's campaign is, that they made all of the "scary sacrifices," in terms of risk to life, limb and legal penalties. Meanwhile Mr. O'Connor, it is alleged, consumed vast amounts of alcohol, abused females all around him, failed to provide help to people with their fines as promised, has been unable to explain where vast amounts of the money collected by the group has gone, called for extremist actions while demonising others for being extremists and is now busy flitting around the media telling the fathers he said he was representing that they are "too stupid" to be given care over children.

Confusion also reigns within the group about why O'Connor attacked his own former members and the reputation of Fathers4Justice instead of attacking the allegations over the Leo Blair story as a smear campaign, or the actions of a lone extremist. As a skilled public relations man, O'Connor is well aware of what he was doing and the consequences of it for his group. It is this that leads many members of the disbanded group to feel that O'Connor has walked away for other reasons.

Former members of F4J have told me that they feel he was providing the makers of a forthcoming movie about F4J with a perfect ending to their story. The movie deal was brokered between Mirimax films and O'Connor two years ago. O'Connor is also planning a book that will, no doubt, be launched along with the film and he stands to make a fortune from both deals. In the meantime, those he sent up cranes and buildings to shiver in the cold wearing superhero costumes, are left poverty stricken and with the threat of being sent to jail for not paying the fines imposed by the courts. It is little wonder than those men are furious.

Judas, traitor and fraud are just 3 of the words that spring to mind about O'Connor.

Manson said, "I cannot believe [O'Connor] would do this. It's bad enough risking being shot by the police when performing stunts, but now I may have the IRA after me as well."