'Both parents should be in a child's life'

But as the person charged with increasing awareness in Scotland of the aims of Families Need Fathers (FNF) - a much more benign organisation - he's now on a mission to try to make the legal process surrounding parental access and custody issues fairer, and ultimately as non-confrontational as is humanly possible.

Happily married with two grown-up girls he may be, but his working life has been dedicated to helping those for whom the path of domestic bliss has resulted in fierce courtroom battles, and tug-of-love headlines, as families disintegrate, leaving many children with just one parent in their lives.

For years he was the voice of One Parent Families Scotland, where he was instrumental in establishing the Edinburgh Dads Club for single fathers. But he's just been appointed as FNF's development manager and the charity's main aim is to increase shared parenting as the outcome of divorce.

"The law doesn't take sides, but the people administering the law well . . . let's just say a lot of people who come to FNF are having great difficulty in maintaining contact with their children and if they have to go to court they find the presumption seems to be that the mother is always going to be the main carer.

"What we are looking for is for the default position to be that both parents should be strongly involved with the children.

"That doesn't mean to say it's got to be exactly 50-50 because that is not practical, but what we want is something where both parents play a part in the life of the children and both parents make a strong contribution to parenting.

"There are lots of ways that can be done. In some cases if could be that children spend relatively equal amounts of time with both parents, or live with one but see a lot of the other, not just at weekends.

"There's a lot of academic evidence to show that after parents split it is far better for children to have positive relationships with both in the short and long term."

It all sounds rather neat - quite the opposite of how bitter divorce and custody battles can get. Maxwell admits that it's difficult for warring parents to put their differences aside, but says that is only enhanced by the adversarial nature of the court system.

"The law is supposed to be impartial. But the first piece of advice we always give is, if possible, sort it out without going to court, preferably through family mediation.

"Court is an adversarial system . . . lawyers representing each side are in competition and that's the cause of a lot of problems."

He mentions the recent Edinburgh case where a mother trying to win a custody case had made false allegations that her ex-husband had abused their seven-year-old daughter.

The former bank worker had only been allowed two hours a week of supervised contact with his son and daughter as a result of the allegations.

In his bid to win unsupervised contact, Sheriff Nigel Morrison QC ruled the mother, who was from Spain, invented the abuse. Indeed e-mails between her and a Spanish lawyer suggested that the lawyer had proposed she "report an abusive situation" which could lead to her winning custody.

"It just shows how adversarial the system is. Of course, abuse allegations should always be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated . . . but it proves the system is about winners and losers, and children's lives should not be about that.

"Luckily in that case the sheriff was particularly strong and saw that there was no reason for the father not to see his children."

Families Need Fathers has been working in England since the early 1970s and only recently established branches in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Part of Maxwell's remit is to increase the number of branches across Scotland.

"We have received a grant from the Equality and Human Rights Commission for two years to expand our work in Scotland. The EHRC felt there was a gender imbalance in services available to parents in Scotland, so increasing those will be one aspect of the job.

"Another will be to talk to lawyers and politicians about changing the presumption that one parent should be the carer and to promote shared parenting.

"That's what FNF is all about - and already the coalition government in Westminster has given its support, which has been a major success for the national organisation.

"So, in the run-up to the election, we will be contacting all the Scottish politicians in the hope they will emulate their English counterparts."

He adds: "And already in Glasgow there are specialist courts for family issues and that's something we hope to see introduced elsewhere in Scotland."

Speed is also of the essence in such volatile cases, he says. In the worst cases, it can take years for access and custody to be resolved, resulting in many father-child relationships breaking down completely. "Having dedicated courts where the same sheriff deals with the case all the way through rather than different people getting involved, that would help enormously," he says.

He admits the traditional view of man being the breadwinner and woman the nurturer is changing, if slowly. Child support legislation for instance has finally dropped the term "absent father" and replaced it with "non-resident parent". But changes to maintenance payments and Child Benefit, where both parents could share costs and financial help, are a long way off.

Another part of the job is to attract a celebrity supporter. FNF in England has Bob Geldolf, and One Parent Family Scotland has JK Rowling. "It would be wonderful. Unfortunately a lot of celebrities do have breakdowns in their relationships, so any Scottish celebrities who want to offer us support or money would be most welcome," he says, laughing.

It all sounds like a superhuman job, but Maxwell is prepared - even though stunts are off the agenda. "The first thing I always say is we're not Fathers for Justice and I won't be in a costume," he jokes.

"I'd much rather be putting on a suit and making tangible changes by speaking to the right people than shouting from the rooftops. However, both organisations exist for the same reason - that fathers feel there's injustice and a need for change.

"Fathers' rights are on the agenda just now and I think it's because more do want to continue to be involved in the parenting of their children after divorce or separation and that surely has to be encouraged."

• The Edinburgh branch of Families Need Fathers meets on the first Monday of every month at 10 Palmerston Place. Visit www.edinburgh.fnf.org.uk or call 0300 0300 363.