Enoch Burke's salary to pay school debt as High Court considers seizing family cars

High Court reporters

Some €15,000 of jailed teacher Enoch Burke's salary will have to be paid to Wilson's Hospital School to pay for a debt he owes over some of his trespasses on the premises, the High Court ordered today.  

Mr Justice Brian Cregan also said he may yet consider having certain Burke family cars, which were used to drive Mr Burke onto the school grounds, sequestered to the State. 

It is not necessary to do so now, as Mr Burke is in prison again, but the judge said the court will consider it again at a later date should it prove necessary. 

The judge was giving a second judgment in relation to outstanding matters since he ordered the immediate jailing of Mr Burke for his continuing contempt by turning up at the school again.  

He was picked up by gardaí this week and brought directly to Mountjoy prison, making it his fourth time in prison in the last three years for the same breach, and he has racked up more than €225,000 in daily fines for doing so.  

He claims he is in prison for refusing to endorse transgenderism as a teacher in Wilson's Hospital School, from which he was suspended three years ago, and a final hearing over his dismissal awaits the outcome of a further legal challenge.  In the meantime, his salary continues to be paid, but the money is going to the State because he continued to turn up at the school. 

The judge told him he was not in prison for his views on transgenderism but must, to purge his contempt, give an undertaking not to trespass on the school again. 

"He does not have to give any undertaking that he will follow the school principal's direction to call a child "they" or "them".  He does not have to accept transgenderism.  

"He does not have to stop protesting against transgenderism.  He does not have to change his religious beliefs one iota", he said.  

The idea that he was imprisoned because of his religious beliefs, as he has claimed, "was nonsense", the judge said. 

Mr Burke is being imprisoned because he is trespassing on other people's property. No more. No less

"Mr Burke is being imprisoned because he is trespassing on other people's property. No more. No less", he said. 

Mr Burke appeared in court today from Mountjoy Prison via video-link. Before the link could be established, the judge noticed his brother Isaac and father Sean in the courtroom.  

The judge told Isaac he would have to leave as he had no right of audience before the court and reminded him that gardaí have had to remove him and other members of his family previously for disruptive conduct.

Isaac said there was no basis for him to be removed, as his brother had not been produced in person, he had "no advocate" and he (Isaac) was there to produce documents. 

The judge rose while gardaí removed both him and his father from the courtroom.

Later, via video-link, Enoch Burke said he had a preliminary application to make in relation to his appearance in court. He said he was given to understand by the prison authorities on Thursday that he would be brought to court in person, he said. 

But he found that Rosemary Mallon, barrister for the school, had applied to the court on Thursday to have a video link production, which meant he was not in the body of the court, and he was deprived of his legal files.   This was, he said, to "gratify the whim of my adversary", and he wanted an explanation for it.  

The school's solicitors had sought to clarify from the court whether Mr Burke would need to be produced for the hearing of today's judgment, given that he had since been arrested and brought to prison.  They were told by the Court Service that they would have to make such an application. 

Mr Burke said that the explanation did not stand up to scrutiny as he was not notified.  

Mr Justice Cregan said no criticism could be levelled at Ms Mallon.  Mr Burke did not understand the nature of "ex parte" applications (where only one side is represented), he said. 

When Mr Burke continued to complain that the truth was not being told by Ms Mallon or the court, the judge told him, "I am not going to take any lectures from you on honesty".  

The judge also said he did not know how Mr Burke had been notified he would be produced in court today, when the only order that had been made was that he be brought in on December 18.   

He said he intended to read his judgment on the outstanding matters and would adjourn any applications arising to next Wednesday when Mr Burke could be produced in person. 

Mr Burke's audio was then muted by order of the judge, and when unmuted after the judgment was read, he continued to protest that he was in prison over his transgenderism views.  

The court then moved on to the next case.