Jim Bagnall, in judge's garb, outside the Rotorua courthouse. Picture / Tracey Scott

Jim Bagnall, in judge's garb, outside the Rotorua courthouse. Picture / Tracey Scott

Jim Bagnall says the end justifies the means. "They are starting to listen now because we're making it personal. I abhor that, but they wouldn't listen to us before, not a word."

A few moments later he clarifies what he's said - part of him abhors what he's doing but part of him doesn't. Watching him in full flight with a megaphone, he appears to relish stirring or, as he puts it, "championing fathers everywhere".

The former Auckland West Union of Fathers organiser is telling the Weekend Herald why men's groups have upped the ante in their protests about perceived injustices in the Family Court.*

Bagnall's group and others around the country, a loose "coalition of fathers" have begun rolling demonstrations - the next protests will be tomorrow - outside the homes of Family Court judges, lawyers and court-appointed psychologists.

But though their actions have given the groups publicity and widespread media coverage for their cause, there have also been negative responses.

"Your members came across as thugs and bullyboys intimidating the women who dared to stand up to them," says a posting to Hands On Equal Parent, one of the group's websites.

And a letter to the Herald on Sunday asks: "Why are these men estranged from their families? Could it be their public actions reflect their private behaviour?"

There is discontent within the father's groups, too, with some questioning whether harassing people in their homes is going too far. And whether bad press is in fact better than no press.

On May 20 at its annual general meeting the Union of Fathers passed a resolution that none of its members would be involved in protests that take place outside residential dwellings or name specific people. Bagnall has not renewed his membership and has been asked to remove Union of Fathers signage from his bus.

"Protests need to be focused on the system and not individuals," says Union of Fathers president Fraser Penny.

Bagnall has experienced the animosity firsthand. He's been assaulted three times in the course of his demonstrations - once with an egg, "once with a hand from a woman who screamed, 'This is my home'," and on another occasion with a paint-gun which splattered his bus.

"These people, when their buttons are pressed, are just as violent and stupid as us," he proclaims. That's probably not quite what he meant to say. But the idea of men behaving badly in order to provoke others to do the same seems to sum up the strategy.

Bagnall who frequently assists men as a McKenzie friend of the court, says he gives hope to men who have nowhere else to turn. "What I've done in the past seven years is hold people in check from doing very stupid things, and I can guarantee that's true."