A BOURNEMOUTH man who caused traffic chaos by staging a roadside protest on the last day of the Bournemouth Air Festival has been spared jail.

Martin Cuff donned a Spider-Man costume and climbed over the barrier on the Cooper Dean flyover at around 11.30am on September 1, 2013, in a protest at being denied access to his son by the courts.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard yesterday how Cuff draped a banner which read ‘4 Fathers There Is No Justice’ over the barrier, and sprayed 'silly string' onto the road below.

Prosecutor Timothy Moores said police, concerned for the defendant's welfare after he threatened to jump, closed the flyover and the road beneath for two-and-a-half hours, causing traffic queues as far back as Ashley Heath and blocking access to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

Sentencing the 33-year-old to four months imprisonment, suspended for 15 months, Judge Brian Forster QC said: "I can't solve your issues even if they are genuine issues.

"What you did was foolhardy, but it is confirmed by what I have read that you now recognise that."

He warned the defendant that the incident could have resulted in serious consequences he had not foreseen.

Mr Moores estimated that the operation cost the equivalent of £2,500 in police time. Cuff admitted the charge - causing a public nuisance - on the first day of his trial, leading to prosecution costs of £1,200.

The court heard he had a previous conviction for producing cannabis.

In mitigation, Tom Evans said his client was remorseful and "keen to make reparations".

Speaking to the Daily Echo after the hearing, Cuff, of Eldon Place, said he was sorry for the disruption he had caused.

"I chose where I stood so cars could still get by, I didn't realise they were going to close off the whole roundabout," he said.

"Seven years of going through the legal process to try and see my son, I wanted to show him I tried and I wasn't an absent dad.

"But it actually achieved nothing."

The fine finish decorator, who lives with his current partner Lucy Riggs, is planning to make another attempt through the courts to see his son.

He was ordered to undergo supervision and the Thinking Skills course, and to pay £500 costs and £500 compensation to Dorset Police.