Enoch Burke 'has something to hide' regarding his income, says Judge
Enoch Burke has ‘something to hide’ regarding the income he and his family are making from their campaign against transgenderism, a High Court judge has said.
Judge Brian Cregan said Mr Burke was not in Mountjoy because of his ‘principled opposition to transgenderism’.
He said the teacher was in prison because of his ‘unprincipled trespassing’ on his former school’s property.
Pic: X/Enoch Burke
Mr Burke had been asked several times to give a statement of his financial affairs when the court was trying to set an appropriate level of fines for his continued presence at Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath, in defiance of a court order that he stay away.
In a ruling given on Tuesday in response to Mr Burke’s complaints about his choice of words in a previous judgment, Judge Cregan said: ‘This case is exceptional. And why is it exceptional? Because Mr Burke has made a calculation that it brings him notoriety and his 15 minutes of fame.
‘It could also be because he and his family wish to make money from this campaign. I note in this regard that Mr Burke has refused to comply with a number of court orders directing him to furnish an affidavit of income and expenditure.
‘It is clear that he has something to hide in this regard.’
The judge also stated that Mr Burke was not interested in defending the case against him, but in ‘using the courts to pursue his political campaign against transgenderism’.
Judge Cregan said it was ‘nonsense’ to suggest, ‘as some would have it’, that Mr Burke would be in prison for life, if he never agreed to purge his contempt.
He said he would be released if the underlying dispute between him and the school came to an end.
The dispute stemmed from his reaction to being asked to call a transitioning pupil by a new name and the pronoun ‘they’.
Judge Cregan said that if a Disciplinary Appeal Panel (DAP) decides that Mr Burke was not properly dismissed in January 2023 for gross misconduct, then the teacher will be restored to his position at the school.
‘He will then cease to be a trespasser, as he will have a right to be at the school,’ he said.
‘If, on the other hand, Mr Burke loses his appeal… Mr Burke’s self-created legal fiction that he can turn up for work every day because he is still employed by the school will, one hopes, come to an end.’
He said it was therefore ‘vital’ that the DAP makes its decision as quickly as possible.
Judge Cregan reiterated that Mr Burke would not be released from prison for Christmas, but that he was free to leave at any time, provided he purged his contempt.
He said that one of the most ‘disturbing’ aspects of the case was ‘the amount of lies being told by Mr Burke about this matter’.
He explained: ‘In this case, Mr Burke is in breach of a valid court order not to trespass on school property…It is not open to Mr. Burke to state falsely why he is in prison and to pretend that he is in prison for a different reason.
‘Yet in statement after statement to this court, and elsewhere, Mr Burke says that he is in prison because of his opposition to transgender rights. He knows these statements are lies. Yet he continues to make them.’
Judge Cregan said there may be good arguments as to why teachers should not be compelled to call pupils by the pronouns they or them, and there may also be good reasons as to why they should.
‘This case raises important questions about freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. The courts exist precisely to deal with these clashes of constitutional rights so that they are resolved through the legal process, and not through violence,’ he said.
‘However, in order that this clash of constitutional rights is considered by impartial courts, it is necessary that the Rule of Law is maintained and that court orders are obeyed.’
He refused Mr Burke’s application to amend his earlier judgment, in which he said the teacher was, among other things, ‘a baleful and malign presence, an intruder, stalking the school, its teachers and its pupils’.
That judgment also stated that Mr Burke was a ‘potential danger to pupils and teachers’.
Judge Cregan said there was no error of fact in his judgment, and he would not be removing those words.
Prior to reading out the judgment, Judge Cregan had asked Enoch Burke’s brother Isaac, sister Ammi and mother Martina to leave the court, saying they were ‘persistent disruptors of court business’.
When they refused to do so, they were escorted out by gardai, protesting about their right to attend the hearing. Dr Isaac Burke was carried out, with one garda holding his legs and the other his arms.
Enoch Burke listened to the judgment via a remote link from Mountjoy. When he attempted to remonstrate with the judge afterwards, alleging that the court had an objection to religion and was ‘breathing out hellfire’, he was placed on mute and the connection was cut off.
The case will be mentioned before the court again next week.
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