Caped crusaders to hang up costumes

Although they raised the profile of fathers’ rights to a hitherto unseen level, it seems Fathers 4 Justice’s (F4J) superheroes weren’t so indestructible after all.

We won’t see Batman, Spiderman et al scaling the walls of the nation’s great institutions again after the group’s founder,  Matt O’Connor, decided to disband F4J when news emerged of an alleged plot by a breakaway group to kidnap the prime minister’s five-year-old son, Leo.

In a statement likely to be disputed by some in the sector, O’Connor said F4J had campaigned “peacefully” for three years.

“We condemn any individual who planned this appalling outrage, which is anathema to our campaign,” he added.