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Activist on Buckingham balcony
13/09/2004 16:22 - (SA)
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| Activist Jason Hatch stands on a ledge near the balcony where the royal family appears on ceremonial occasions. (AP) |
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London - A Fathers 4 Justice campaigner dressed as the comic book and cinema hero breached palace security by protesting from a balcony at Buckingham Palace, his group said.
A Buckingham palace official said that an intruder was on a palace balcony, without elaborating.
"I can confirm it. The guy is called Jason Hatch," a spokesperson for Fathers 4 Justice said.
"He is dressed as Batman. He is on one of the balconies, which I believe is the gallery balcony," she told AFP.
"He has been up there since 12:00 (11:00 GMT). We don't know how long he plans on spending up there. "He wants equal rights for parenting," she said.
The group founded in 2002 has become more vocal and daring in its protests lately.
One of its members was charged on Sunday with creating a public nuisance after he climbed the London Eye, the jumbo ferris wheel on the banks on the River Thames, dressed as Spider Man.
David Chick spent more than 18 hours on Saturday on the 137m tourist attraction, dressed as the comic book hero, unfurling a banner declaring "In the name of the father".
He voluntarily climbed back down to the ground at about 22:15 (21:15 GMT) where he was arrested, taken to hospital for a medical examination, then held for questioning.
Chick staged a similar stunt last year atop a crane next to east London's Tower Bridge to demand access to his four-year-old daughter, whom he has not seen since March 2003.
He says he is being denied access to her by his former partner, despite a court order allowing him two hours each fortnight.
London Eye shareholder British Airways said it did not know how Chick evaded security in the early hours of Saturday morning, but it described the breach as "unacceptable" and promised to investigate.
Last May a member of Fathers 4 Justice, which supports Chick's cause, was arrested and fined for hurling a condom full of purple flour at Prime Minister Tony Blair in parliament.
- AFP
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