The police cleared the area and the disruption to the city's traffic was enormous, resulting in the suspension of the London Congestion Charge for a while. Chick finally climbed down from the crane of his own accord.
Chick is not formally a member of F4J but his protests were closely identified with it in the media. F4J consequently denied planning the action although it did later approve it, but one of its spokesmen went to the scene, where a crowd built up, and the ensuing press and media coverage was considerable.
Traffic was preventing from crossing the bridge from the morning of the 31st October until November 4th which is far more disruption than was caused by David Blaine. Chick remained on the crane until the following evening. Upon descending, he was immediately arrested for causing a public nuisance.
London MayorKen Livingstone condemned Chick's action as being irresponsible, for the disruption it caused in the capital. Livingstone said that Chick was "amply demonstrating why some men should not have access to their own children."
However when his trial before the Southwark Crown Court in May 2004, Chick was cleared of all charges. It emerged that Chick had repeatedly stressed during the stunt that the road closures effected by police, which cost £5m per day in lost business and caused ten mile tailbacks, were unnecessary as he was of sound mind and there was no danger of him falling from the 100 feet tall crane. A senior police officer at the scene noted in a log "Climber does not like road closures so should be used as bargaining tool" and decided to keep the road closed as a way of shortening the protest.
News report on court case from the Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/15/nspid15.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/15/ixhome.html)
Fathers4Justice (or F4J) is an international fathers' rights pressure group founded and focused primarily in the United Kingdom that campaigned for equal parenting, family law reform and equal contact for divorced parents with children.
Fathers4Justice founded branches in Holland and Canada in 2004, and in the USA and Italy during 2005.
Protests of a similar nature occurred outside the United Kingdom, a protest by a member dressed as Robin the Boy Wonder was held for twelve hours on the Pattullo Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Fathers4Justice is a fathers' rights pressure group based in the United Kingdom, who have staged many protests which have received national news coverage because of their circumstances.
The members of Fathers4Justice who perpetrated the incident were, however, vouched for by The Baroness Golding, a member of the House of Lords, which allowed them into an unscreened area.
At 14:20 BST, a group of protesters appeared outside the front gates of Buckingham Palace, and as the palace security was distracted, Jason Hatch and David Pyke, members of Fathers4Justice, ascended over the perimeter fence of the palace.
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