Rough Justice
‘THE plan to take a child from his parents to prove that a child needs his parents was, on the face of it, deeply flawed.
But perhaps the four Fathers 4 Justice plotters who hatched a plan to kidnap Leo Blair were thinking bigger.
Might it be that they would kidnap Leo Blair, not to return him to mum and dad unharmed a short while later, but to raise him as their own?
After many years had passed, the kidnappers would unleash Leo upon the world. Hed be a dysfunctional, dejected and maladjusted teenager. There! theyd say. Thats what you get for hanging around with four men who like to dress up. Kids need stability in their lives.
We will never know how the plan panned out because it was stopped in its infancy.
Indeed, so early was the plan to kidnap Leo scuppered by Special Branch officers that Leo was never in any danger. The cops didnt even have to make any arrests.
To help explain why, the Sun hears from Graham Manson, a member of the Fathers 4 Justice splinter group The Real Fathers For Justice. Speaking of the four would-be kidnappers, Manson says: They were told by SO12 officers that they knew what they were up to and that they would be shot if they tried to carry out their plan.
Noting stops a crime like a policemans bullet. But its hard not to imagine the F4J gang cursing their luck that when their plot was discovered they were all dressed as cuddly old Father Christmases; had they been wearing their bullet-proof Batcapes, they would surely have laughed in the face of such a threat.
As it is, all the plan achieved was a scoop for the Sun (FATHER XMAS FOR JUSTICE), a piece in the Mail entitled Sinister, sexist and scary, the men in the superhero costumes, and the groups fonder, Matt OConnor, telling the Express that Fathers 4 Justice is no more.
The plot to kidnap Leo Blair has, in OConnors words, undermined the position and credibility of the organisation.
Quite so. Its hard enough to appear credible when youre stuck on a Buckingham Palace window ledge dressed in pair of Batman pyjamas without the added complication of having to dandle the Prime Ministers youngest on your knee.
OConnor a man the Mail says frequently cheated on his ex-wife, who kicked him out when he failed to return home on Christmas Eve 1999 – goes on say: Anyone who thinks its a good idea to kidnap a five-year-old boy needs to have their head looked at.
Indeed. But first they have to remove their cowls…’
Posted: 19th, January 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
