Parliament Building Security Breached by Fathers' Rights Activist

Sept. 28, 2005
Protester gained access to the roof of Britain's House of Parliament

LONDON (AP) - A fathers' rights activist spent some five hours on the roof of Britain's Houses of Parliament on Tuesday in a protest that exposed continued flaws in parliamentary security.

Police arrested Guy Harrison after he came down from the roof of Westminster Hall, part of the parliamentary complex, at around 8 p.m. (19:00 GMT). He was detained on suspicion of aggravated trespass and taken to a central London police station, a spokeswoman for London's Metropolitan Police said.

Harrison earlier said he was protesting on behalf of Fathers 4 Justice, a group that campaigns for divorced and separated fathers to have more access to their children. Speaking on his cell phone to Sky News TV from a small, windswept ledge, he said he wanted to highlight "the atrocities that are going on that we cannot see our children."

Harrison pleaded guilty last year to pelting Prime Minister Tony Blair with condoms containing purple corn starch as he spoke in the House of Commons. That incident prompted a major review of parliamentary security, and Harrison was fined 600 pounds (US$1,080; euro895).

Most lawmakers were away from Parliament on Tuesday because of the summer recess. Blair was in Brighton, southern England, for the annual conference of his governing Labour Party.

Other Fathers 4 Justice stunts in recent years have included sending a man dressed as Spiderman to scale the London Eye Ferris wheel, sending a man in a Batman suit up the front of Buckingham Palace and handcuffing a government minister.

(c) 2005 Associated Press