The head of a fathers' rights group has launched a defence of controversial Magistrate Carlisle Greaves.

Mr. Greaves hit the headlines earlier this month when he told a single mother that he would put a block on her child maintenance payments if she did not allow the father of her two-year-old son visitation rights.

The threat was criticised by several MPs and children's rights campaigner Sheelagh Cooper.

But Fathers' Resource Centre president Alvin Goulbourne said the Magistrate was correct and courageous to defend the rights of fathers.

And he blasted an Island mentality which, he claimed, is biased against men.

"I want to come out in support of the Magistrate Carlisle Greaves for having the courage to be fair in the issue of child care and access,'' Mr. Goulbourne said.

"I say courage because the bias against fathers is so ingrained in this community that it takes courage to say to a mother `obey the law or else'.

"He has not withheld the child support. He just used it as a tool to get the mother's attention. The Magistrate has a lot of information at his disposal and bases his judgment on this. Yet he is attacked on all sides by persons who do not have access to this information.

"Fathers are much more important than their financial contribution and it is high time we realised this.'' Mr. Goulbourne argued that if a father had access to his child, he would be far more willing to provide financial support.

He said: "For too long our court system has focused mainly on child support.

There is a whole system in place for getting this money from the father, but what about access and visitation? "Many men feel that the courts are a waste of time because they will not enforce access and visitation. They are frustrated by this, but it is the child that suffers.

"Child maintenance can be recouped. Again, the law is unfair. A man can go to jail for non-payment of child maintenance, but the much more serious crime of denying access and visitation does not include jail.''