A BITTER father who dressed up as Spider-Man and scaled a 150ft crane in a six-day protest was cleared yesterday of causing a public nuisance.

The protest led to police closing streets and paralysing a huge part of London’s road transport network.

Traffic tailed back up to ten miles in the City and East London after David Chick, 36, staged his protest at a building site near Tower Bridge last October.

The former window cleaner began the demonstration, which halted building work on a £45 million office block, after being refused access to his four-year-old daughter.

Officers claimed that they feared for his mental state and believed he posed a risk to pedestrians and motorists if he fell or jumped from the crane.

But Southwark Crown Court was told that senior officers knew Mr Chick was not mentally disturbed and that it was possible to reopen roads. The case hinged on excerpts from police logs where senior officers clearly stated that the road closures were a “bargaining tool” and any future prosecution against Mr Chick would be “weakened” if routes were opened.

As the not-guilty verdict was announced, the father of one grinned while the public gallery, containing mainly men wearing Fathers4Justice T-shirts, cheered and applauded.

Revelling in the verdict and subsequent media attention, Mr Chick, who lives with his mother in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, emerged from court and pulled on a Spider-Man mask. He also put on a variety of T-shirts, one which read “Police spin version exposed”. Another declared: “Family law fails children and dads”.

Asked whether he would ever stage another protest, he replied: “Watch this space.”

Last October, under cover of darkness, Mr Chick went to the 175,000sq ft Taylor Woodrow building site at St Katharine’s Way. Carrying eight litres of water, a package of food, a butter knife, a toothbrush, toothpaste and his grandfather’s pocket knife he clambered 150ft up the crane and prepared to stage his longest protest yet.

He put on the Spider-Man suit, chosen because it was his daughter’s favourite comic book hero and because it gave added insulation, and unfurled a number of banners.

In court he was portrayed as a “maverick” who knowingly brought the City to a near-complete standstill. Nearby businesses claimed they experienced a huge downturn in profits because motorists were being rerouted and people were arriving late for work.

The court was told how trained police negotiators scaled the crane and tried but failed to coax Mr Chick down.

Tapes played to the court showed that Mr Chick had repeatedly said he was not a danger to motorists or pedestrians and the road closures were unnecessary.

A handwritten log by Superintendent Tom Henley stated: “Climber does not like road closures so should be used as bargaining tool against you and your cause.” He later added: “My decision . . . leave the roads closed.”

Another police record stated that Tower Bridge “could be reopened if required”, but that its continued closure “could help in negotiations”.

On the fifth day another officer wrote in the log that Mr Chick was “not in any crisis, not swearing, angry nor mentally ill, and did not want to hurt anyone”. Later that day and 24 hours before Mr Chick abandoned his protest, police opened the roads.

A police spokesman yesterday said the “health and safety of officers were of overriding concern” when it was decided to close the roads.

The nine-day trial was told that Mr Chick and his former partner, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had a daughter during a three-year relationship. But ten months after she was born they separated.

He claimed that despite a court order allowing him to visit his daughter for two hours every week, the child’s mother was reluctant to allow him access and eventually refused altogether.

Mr Chick insisted that he had exhausted all legal options before embarking on a series of crane-top protests to draw attention to his plight.

In August 2000, he climbed a crane in Victoria, Central London, before scaling another in Guildford, Surrey.

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