He risked his life, his liberty and his reputation to perch for five hours on a ledge at Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman. It was all, he said, to highlight the injustice of not being allowed proper contact with his two young children from a previous marriage.

SOURCE: http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,1074,1304800,00.html

Wednesday September 15, 2004

Sandra Laville
The Guardian

As Jason Hatch walked out of a police cell yesterday it was surprising, then to find his current girlfriend complaining that his commitment to protesting for fathers' rights meant he had little time for their seven-month-old daughter - the youngest of his four children by three different women.

Gemma Polson, 27, suggested the strain on her relationship with Mr Hatch from his activities was so great that the couple had separated.

"We're not together anymore. It was all going too far," she said. Fathers4Justice has taken over his life. He was seeing hardly anything of our daughter which was a bit rich when the whole point of his campaign was to allow dads to see more of their children. I'd just rather he saw more of Amelia."

Ms Polson said she knew nothing of his plan to scale Buckingham Palace, which was plotted at a country hotel last Saturday night by leading members of the group. "He had told me he was going to give it all up, but then he goes and does that."

But she indicated that the couple's separation was not final.

"We are still friends," she said. "I spoke to him on the phone this morning, he was in hospital being treated. I'm waiting for a call from him right now. He's just been released from the police station."

She said she did not want to comment further until she had considered offers to sell her story to a national newspaper. She added, however, that she was no longer living at the home the couple shared in Cheltenham. The modern semi-detached house is just a few hundred yards away from where two of Mr Hatch's children - the subject of his protests - live with their mother Victoria Jones.

Ms Jones took refuge with her mother from the intense publicity in the aftermath of Mr Hatch's protest. A notice posted on the door of her mother's house yesterday stated the family were "law-abiding citizens".

Mr Hatch's father, Roger Tunnicliff, said his son only wanted to be a good father to the two children, who are aged four and six.

"It affects me too. I'm missing out on seeing my two grandchildren. When I see Vicky in the street, she won't speak to me. It's very hard. She tells me she is not allowed to speak to me."

Mr Hatch was released on bail yesterday and immediately returned to Buckingham Palace, telling reporters that "I would do anything, even die, to get to see my children".

He refused, however, to discuss his seven-month old baby, on the grounds that the subject was a private matter.