TWO fathers' rights protesters who handcuffed former children's minister Margaret Hodge during a protest were today cleared of false imprisonment.
Jonathan Stanesby, 41, and Jason Hatch, 35, shackled the MP for Barking during a family law conference at the Lowry Hotel in Salford in 2004.
The minister, who now works in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, was trapped in the rigid police-style cuffs for around 15 minutes and had to be released using bolt cutters.
During the complex two-and-a-half-week trial at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court the pair defended their actions, claiming it was part of a reasonable political protest.
The eight-woman, four-man jury took four hours and 42 minutes to find both defendants not guilty of one count each of false imprisonment.
The verdicts were met with cheers and applause from Fathers4Justice supporters in the public gallery.
Mr Hatch, who became famous after scaling the walls of Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman, thanked the jury.
Mrs Hodge gave evidence in the trial and described how she was "distressed" by the activists' actions.
Mr Stanesby, of Ivybridge, Devon, told the minister she was being "arrested" for covering up child abuse before slapping the cuffs on to her wrist, a court heard.
This was a reference to Mrs Hodge's time as a councillor in Islington, north London, during an investigation into child sex abuse.
Mr Hatch, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, also attempted to handcuff the Cabinet minister but was blocked from reaching her by Mrs Hodge's assistant private secretary.
The incident took place shortly after 10am on November 19 and was designed to achieve greater publicity for the men's cause.
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well they have got what they wnated PUBLICITY
nice one guys.maybe this will result in the sale of handcuffs going through the roof.
justice for dads at last
Well done to Jason and Jolly. Shame on Margaret Hodge MP who was committed to seeing these fathers rights campaigners imprisoned. Shame on the GMP and CPS for wanting to criminalise protesters who engage in humorous stunts to raise publicity on one of the most important issues affecting our society today.
good news for once.... and free publicity too.
What were GMP and the CPS trying to achieve (other than wasting tax-payers money) in bringing this case to court. Luckily, the jury had enough commonsense to find these two men not guilty.
The breaking news is that this unnecessary trial has cost us the tax-payer in the region of £200,000 which I, for one, am not happy about. These costs should be, rather than being taken from the tax-payer, met from the budgets of GMP and the CPS as a punishment for making such a frivolous prosecution against these two men.
A complete and utter waste of taxpayers money. It's a shame what happens when politicians try to 'cure' their problem of protesters stunts by jailing them. We all know 'Prevention' is better, spend this money more wisely, tackle the problems generated by todays fatherless society, end the crimes commited in the Family Court system, we need a presumption of shared parenting now.
Guns knife and drug crime at record levels. So what do 20 or so PC's do stand around waiting for fathers looking for weapons of mass destruction. The police and courts have become the play thing of labour. This is a police state much like 1930 Germany and the communist states. Suppression of political protests is the main aim of our police or should they be called Gestapo/Stazzi. Thouasands of good men and women have died in the name of freedom to see it betrayed in such a underhand manner. The police of this should be a resigning issue for the GMP chief constable Mr M.Todd.
The press and media should wake up and smell the coffee otherwise democracy will go the way of the dodo. They should report on the real story of what actually is going on. Much like they missed the plot with the Leo Blair plot. They were royally had by No downing street and The Sun.