- Tim Line started website after blaming solicitor for four-year divorce
- Line wrote of experiences and encouraged others to do the same
- He has was sentenced to four weeks behind bars suspended for two years
- Was also handed a restraining order and told to pay £480 in costs
A campaigner from a Fathers 4 Justice splinter group who created a website harassing a solicitor has narrowly avoided jail.
Activist Tim Line, 50, started the website after blaming Adrian Bressington for a lengthy four-year divorce battle where he lost custody of his children.
He claimed the solicitor deliberately ‘delayed’ proceedings and on one occasion alleged he neglected to pass messages on to his ex-wife regarding visiting their children.
The father-of-three, of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, set up a website to write of his experiences and encouraged others to do the same, comparing the site to TripAdvisor.
He said: ‘The website is critical yes, but nothing wrong. There are plenty of websites out there that are critical, it’s just like TripAdvisor.
‘I mean TripAdvisor tells the world about crummy service or hotels and it is perfectly allowable.’
Line, who is a member of Real Fathers for Justice – a splinter faction of Fathers 4 Justice – was sentenced to four weeks behind bars, suspended for two years, after he was found guilty of harassment after a judge dubbed the case a ‘deliberate and continued course of conduct’.
He was also handed a restraining order and told to pay £480 in costs.
Sentencing him Deputy District Judge Champion told him: ‘This was a deliberate and continued course of conduct and it was pointed out to you that it was harassment.
Line (left) claimed Mr Bressington (right) deliberately ‘delayed’ proceedings and on one occasion alleged he neglected to pass messages on to his ex-wife regarding visiting their children
‘It crosses the custody threshold because he showed sheer unwillingness and ignored the CPS and the police when they warned him.
‘The nature of the harassment, the person you have harassed, the way you have done it and the fact you have been given every opportunity to stop it before you appeared in court all adds up.
‘I frankly don’t believe what you said about collecting other people to find information.’
North Avon Magistrates Court heard that Line began to target Mr Bressington after his wife went to him asking for help to divorce her partner she alleged was involved in a campaign of domestic abuse
The court heard Line (pictured) began to target Mr Bressington after his wife went to him asking for help to divorce her partner
The court was told Line contested many parts of the divorce – something he avidly denies – including arrangements with his children.
When specialist officers were brought in to speak to his three daughters, however, they all decided they did not want to see Line any more, an outcome he blamed the solicitor for.
Line created the website after becoming involved in a similar site, Solicitors From Hell, which was shut down in March 2012 following a number of successful libel cases against its owner Rick Kordowski.
But despite repeated warnings from police his website could be regarded as harassment, Line continued to maintain and post onto the site.
Speaking after the case Mr Bressington said: ‘He is just acting as if he has done nothing wrong.
‘I just think he has brought the whole thing on himself and it is very regretful that he has done that.
‘His ex-wife came to me alleging domestic abuse, what was I supposed to do, you have to take these cases seriously and I did.’
Line was also handed a restraining order demanding he remove the website and could not post anything on the internet about Mr Bressington ‘which would amount to harassment or encourage or facilitate anyone else to do so’.
New Fathers 4 Justice - Superhero Dads 