Plan to kidnap Blair's son
2006-01-18 08:02
London - Police in Britain have foiled a plot to kidnap Prime Minister Tony Blair's five-year-old son Leo, The Sun newspaper said in a front-page article on Wednesday.
Britain's biggest-selling daily claimed the plan was hatched by "extremist sympathisers" of the Fathers 4 Justice group, which mounts high-profile campaigns for fathers' rights to children following custody battles.
The Sun said "vigilante dads" aimed to kidnap Leo Blair and hold him hostage for a short period to "highlight the plight of fathers denied access to their kids".
An unnamed security source was reported as the basis for the dispatch. Blair and his wife, Cherie, were said to have been told and were "concerned", it added.
Downing Street refused to comment on the report and a spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police said: "We don't discuss matters of security."
The alleged plot was reportedly uncovered by detectives from the Met's Special Branch - which has among its functions investigating extremism and terrorism - which was monitoring the "lunatic fringe" of Fathers 4 Justice.
Protection for the Blairs and their four children - Euan, 22 on Thursday, Nicholas, 21, 17-year-old Kathryn and Leo - was said to have been reviewed after the alleged plot was uncovered just before Christmas.
Fathers 4 Justice has staged a number of high-profile stunts around Britain in recent years to highlight what they deem to be unfair child custody laws.
Breakaway element
Their demonstrations - in which protesters are often dressed as superheroes such as Batman and Robin - are usually peaceful and involve breaching security and occupying notable landmarks.
Activists have in the past egged Blair's car, scaled St Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye ferris wheel. They once got into the public gallery at the Houses of Parliament and threw purple powder at Blair during a speech.
Protesters have even managed to scale onto a ledge at Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
The Sun said exact details of the plot were not revealed and no arrests had been made.
But police believe the conspirators were from a breakaway element of the group who believe the mainstream protesters are not radical enough, it added.
Responding to the report, Fathers 4 Justice founder Matt O'Connor said: "There's evidence to support the fact that there was something going on, because SO13 officers (the Met's anti-terrorist unit) had visited some ex-members of the organisation over the Christmas period.
"That had set alarm bells ringing."
O'Connor said contacts in the force had told them over the last few weeks that SO13 "were threatening to shoot people if they did anything in the region of Downing Street".
But he insisted the group did not know anything about any plot and condemned the idea of kidnapping "unreservedly".