Desperate dad David Chick was back on the ground today after a bizarre 48-hour protest at the top of a 200ft crane.

Mr Chick, 36, from Burgess Hill, brought work at one of the capital's busiest building sites to a standstill and closed a four-lane road when he scaled the crane.

He said it was a bid to draw attention to the plight of "forgotten" fathers, adding: "I did it for my daughter and all the other fathers betrayed by the legal system."

Mr Chick, who has only seen his two-year-old daughter Lauryn for 62 hours in the past 17 months and not at all since February, had planned to stay above the London skyline for seven days but clambered down after 45 hours at midnight on Monday, sunburnt but satisfied.

He said he realised his protest was affecting the site workers, who were not getting paid.

He said: "I felt I'd made my point, and didn't realise quite how much chaos I was going to cause. I didn't do it to make life difficult for others, just to get my message across."

Work on St Katherine's Way at St Katherine's Dock, near the Tower of London, was brought to a halt when Mr Chick was spotted on Sunday afternoon.

He had hauled himself and two bags of banners, water and food up the crane at 2am.

Once installed at the top, he unfurled the ten hand-made bedsheet banners spelling out his plight in letters crafted from black tape.

Back home in Burgess Hill today he worked on paperwork to continue his legal battle to see two-year-old Lauryn.

Mr Chick chose to come down after talking to a Scotland Yard negotiator and a member of action group Fathers for Justice. He was not charged.

A police spokesman said they would not be taking the matter further.

He said: "Police had no power of arrest as he was on private land. We will send a detailed report to site owner Taylor Woodrow for civil redress if they wish."

A spokeswoman for Taylor Woodrow said: "We're not going to prosecute. Mr Chick came down of his own accord. We felt he worked well with the police and the protest ended peacefully. We are comfortable with the conclusion."

Mr Chick has not heard from his child's mother since his stunt and has no way of contacting her.

He said: "I'm 99 per cent certain she'll have heard about it. I've had phone calls from friends of mine where she lives in Surrey supporting me, saying 'Nice one, Dave,' as they know the hell I've been going through in the last 18 months.

"I wanted to be close to the Houses of Parliament but there weren't any cranes nearby so Tower Bridge was the next best.

"It was hard work. I had ten double sheets and a dustsheet in one bag and eight litres of water and some food in another. They were fairly heavy. It took me two trips.

"I had to put my arms through each handle with the bag pressed against my chest as I needed both hands for the ladder."

For the planned week-long protest he had packed some Viennese whirls, Penguin bars and Marmite. He added: "I've got quite a red neck. I brought sun cream but my hands were so black from the oil on the crane I didn't want to rub it on me."

Mr Chick split from his girlfriend when daughter Lauryn was ten months old. In October 2001 a court order allowed him to see Lauryn for two hours a week but this was reduced this year to two hours every two weeks.

He said: "Lauryn's everything I live for. I want everyone to know of the injustice to forgotten fathers. The legal system is an institutionalised social scandal."