PROTEST DAD STOOD TRIAL FOR ASSAULT; Fathers4Justice MP hopeful cleared of attacking wife.
Byline: TOM WELLSA MIDLAND dad standing as an election candidate for the controversial Fathers4Justice group was once charged with attacking his wife, the Sunday Mercury can reveal.
John Ison yesterday announced that he would be one of 200 campaigners fighting a parliamentary seat at the next election.
But we can disclose that the dad-of-two once stood trial after being accused of grabbing his then wife, Caroline, by the throat during a heated row.
Mr Ison, who is a school governor, appeared at Redditch Magistrates Court last August after being charged with common assault by cops but was cleared after a trial.
Mr Ison's political ambitions were unveiled yesterday when he announced that he would try to topple current Redditch Labour MP Jacqui Smith at the next general election.
He is the Birmingham and West Midlands co-ordinator for Fathers4Justice.
Mr Ison, 35, said: 'Not seeing my children breaks my heart. I see kids and their dads in the park and I get very, very upset.
'I am a loving father and I have been excluded completely from the lives of the people I love the most.
'Ever since contact with my childrenwas stopped I have been on a downward spiral.'
Mr Ison, a governor at Coughton Church of England Primary School at Kings Coughton, near Redditch, is separated from his wife of six years - and yesterday he received formal notification of his divorce.
He is banned by a court order from seeing his twin boys.
Last night, Mrs Ison said at her home at Callow Hill, near Redditch: 'I do not want to make any comment really.
'But a judge has banned him from seeing his own children. Read into that what you will.'
The revelation about Mr Ison's court appearance is the latest blow to the credibility of Fathers4Justice, whose members claim they are heartbroken dads whose children are being kept from them by cruel ex-wives. The partner of JasonHatch - who created a national security scare after scaling the walls of Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman last Monday - has disclosed that she left him because he spent too little time with their daughter.
Gemma Polson, 27, walked out on Hatch with their seven month-old daughter, Amelia, citing his obsession with Fathers4Justice stunts.
She claimed that Hatch's public enthusiasm about improved child access for divorced and separated fathers did not extend to spending time with his own child.
'Fathers4Justice has taken over his life,' said Miss Polson, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. 'He has seen hardly anything of our daughter which was a bit rich whenthe point of his campaign was to allow dads to see more of their children.
'I would rather he saw more of Amelia than he does.'
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TRIAL: John Ison
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| Publication: | Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, England) |
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| Date: | Sep 19, 2004 |
| Words: | 454 |
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