An activist who allegedly defaced a statue at Westminster Abbey in a protest against the family court system will continue to be questioned by police on Monday.

Cheryl Corless, a campaigner for the pressure group Stolen Children of the UK, was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after entering the abbey and allegedly spraying the statue on the left hand of the nave, protest group Fathers4Justice said in a statement.

Martin Matthews, a Fathers4Justice campaigner from Great Bookham in Surrey, was also present during the incident but was not arrested, the organisation said.

It is the third protest of its kind in recent weeks and the second in Westminster Abbey itself. Fathers4Justice has encouraged its supporters to take direct action in the spirit of the Suffragettes.

A Fathers4Justice spokesman said: "This was a copycat Suffragette-style protest. Obviously that is the way we are heading at the moment after the two protests on paintings.

"Everyone is celebrating what the Suffragettes did 100 years ago and now we are doing the same type of thing to get equality for fathers in the justice system.

"This protest is about the whole family courts system and the fact that they operate in secret behind closed doors – they are unaccountable and can do whatever they like without the public knowing a thing about it.

"We want to see a transparent and open family court system."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said on Sunday night: "At 7.05pm we were called to reports that a statue had been spray-painted in Westminster Abbey.

"A woman has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and is being held at a central London police station. A man was also present but was not arrested."

Last week Paul Douglas Manning, 57, a protester thought to be linked to Fathers4Justice, allegedly glued a four-inch photograph of a young boy to John Constable's masterpiece The Hay Wain in the National Gallery. He has been charged with criminal damage.

Fathers4Justice campaigner Tim Haries allegedly sprayed the word "help" onto a portrait of the Queen in Westminster Abbey on June 13. He has indicated that he will plead not guilty to one count of criminal damage.

On Friday, Fathers4Justice announced that it was abandoning its five-year "attempted engagement with the political establishment" and called on supporters to take "independent weekly direct action".