Fathers4Justice Campaigner Tim Haries Found Guilty – Statement From Tim Haries
Press Release:
Fathers4Justice Campaigner Tim Haries Statement ref Queens Portrait Trial
Tim Haries has been found guilty by a unanimous verdict.
Sentencing will be on 5th February 2014.
STATEMENT BY TIM HARIES
Whilst I disagree with the verdict reached by the Jury, I take full responsibility for my actions.
I would not hesitate to petition the Queen again by peaceful protest on behalf of my children, and the millions of children separated from their fathers by the British Government. Every Family Court Judge who separates fathers from their children does so with the authority of the Queen and sits in front of the Queen’s Coat of Arms.
My actions were a direct appeal to the Queen to ask her to intervene on behalf of our children in what I believe is the social justice issue of our time.
I would like to state that my children’s lives are worth more than any painting. To me they are priceless.
My defence team argued that the UK Government had breached Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights and my rights to family life which has separated me from my two daughters for the last four years. I love and miss Scarlett 10 and Katie 13 more than anything. The pain of losing my children has been like a living bereavement for me.
I believe that contact denial is a hate crime and an abuse of a child’s fundamental human rights to their father. I also believe that each of us has a moral responsibility to prevent this from happening and to draw attention to the social catastrophe that is mass fatherlessness.
Both the Coalition Government and the previous Labour Government are directly responsible for this situation and the systemic segregation of fathers from their children which has resulted in nearly 4 million children growing up without a father.
They have denied the 40,000 families in Fathers4Justice any representation in Parliament since 2001. The Conservative Party broke their 2010 election promise to introduce a legal presumption of shared parenting and the Government has supported the conclusions of the 2011 Norgrove report which said that fathers have no rights and deserve no rights.
My desperation at not seeing my children was further heightened when I attended a shared parenting debate organised by George Galloway MP in Parliament on 12th June 2013 (the day before my protest and just days before Father’s Day 2013). Just four MP’s out of 650 attended.
As a result of this disgraceful attendance and the obvious contempt MP’s have for the children and families ripped apart in secret courts, I felt compelled to act. Since then just 46 MP’s have signed George Galloway’s Early Day Motion 210 supporting Shared Parenting Rights.
Finally I would like to say that I didn’t only act for my children, but for all the families that will be touched by the cancer of family breakdown. It is a statistical fact that family breakdown will effect everyone in this country at some point.
I accept today’s verdict and any subsequent sentence that is passed. I have the utmost respect for the law.
It is a pity that the law does not respect or recognise me as a father.
I would also like to thank everybody for their support especially, the police and civilian staff at Charing Cross Police station, my legal team.
Tim Haries – Father to Katie and Scarlet
ENDS
