Geldof crusades against 'unjust' custody laws

Bob Geldolf has called for Britain's "unjust" child custody laws to be scrapped.

The former Live Aid campaigner, who went through a two-year custody battle for his daughters when his late wife Paula Yates left him in 1995, has turned himself into a champion of fathers' rights in divorce cases.

But, he said, his crusade had also been prompted by the 70 sacks of letters he has received from men - and women - who endured similar ordeals.

"The laws are nonsense," said Geldof at the launch of a book on children's welfare to which he has contributed a chapter, in which he writes: "Family law ... left me feeling criminalised, belittled, worthless, powerless and irrelevant."

At last night's launch party in central London, Geldof told the audience, which included Cherie Blair: "Usually the children stay with the mother even if she leaves the father. It's very hard for the father to get the children back. I remember being told how lucky I was to see them for two hours a week."

Replacing the current law with one automatically granting equal access to both parents would "remove a lot of the anger and rage inherent in legal cases". He later added: "I just wanted to be with my kids 50 per cent of the time and Paula to be with them 50 per cent of the time. A man's love for his children is equal to a woman's.

"It took two years and a ridiculous amount of money to try to get what should be a right."

Geldof also called for mandatory marriage preparation classes so people understand what responsibilities they were letting themselves in for.

And he suggested that in divorce cases any family home should be given to the children, with the mother and father taking it in turns to stay there with them. "If [the parents]get a new relationship, tough luck - it's about being grown-up."

Since Paula's death in 2000, Geldof has lived in Battersea with daughters Fifi Trixibelle, now 20, Peaches, 14, and Pixie, 12, as well as adopting Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, Paula's daughter by INXS singer Michael Hutchence, who hanged himself in 1995.