A teacher who refused to ‘call a boy a girl’ in a bitter trans row has been slapped with a £195,000 fine for ignoring a court order to stay away from his former school.
Enoch Burke, a secondary school teacher from Castlebar, Co Mayo, has already racked up £68,500 in previous fines – and his latest punishment comes as the court grows increasingly frustrated with his defiance.
In court yesterday, Mr Justice David Nolan hiked Burke’s daily penalty from £1,200 to £1,700 for every day he continues to remain in contempt.
But he stopped short of sending the teacher back to jail for a fourth time – saying that prison was ‘exactly what Mr Burke wanted’.
‘I believe that by locking him up it is only giving fuel to his perverted sense of justice,’ the judge said. This comment immediately drew sharp criticism from the Burke family.
Burke, a devout Evangelical Christian, was not in court for the hearing.
He is believed to have been at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he has repeatedly turned up despite being banned.
His father Sean and siblings Ammi and Isaac did attend – and almost had to be removed by officers after heckling the judge. Mr Justice Nolan had earlier threatened to hold both Isaac and Ammi Burke in contempt if they did not sit down and stop addressing him.
Enoch Burke, a secondary school teacher from Castlebar, Co Mayo, has already racked up £68,500 in previous fines – and his latest punishment comes as the court grows increasingly frustrated with his defiance (pictured 2023)
The German and history teacher has already spent 513 days in prison across three separate stints for defying injunctions ordering him to stay away from the school.
He was originally suspended in August 2022 and formally sacked in January 2023 after refusing, on religious grounds, to address a transgender pupil by a new name and the pronoun ‘they’.
Burke insists his suspension was unlawful and an attack on his right to express his religious beliefs.
The court heard that when Burke turned up at the school two weeks ago, at the start of the new term, he claimed he was there ‘to work’.
Barrister Rosemary Mallon, acting for the school’s board of management, urged the court to take strong action.
But Mr Justice Nolan questioned why the school had not tried other measures – such as employing security – to keep Burke out.
The judge was told that while doors had occasionally been locked, this raised health and safety concerns.
He also heard that when staff were stationed at the school gate, Burke still managed to slip in whenever it was opened to allow parents’ cars through.
Ms Mallon explained that private security had been considered but rejected, partly due to cost and partly because the school felt it was not appropriate to have guards patrolling a place of learning.
She asked for more time to seek instructions and provide an affidavit on the issue of security, which the judge granted.
The case will return to court next month.
Mr Burke is one of 10 siblings – many of whom are well known in the community and nationally for their evangelical opinions.
The German and history teacher has already spent 513 days in prison across three separate stints for defying injunctions ordering him to stay away from the school (pictured 2023)
The family is known to spout anti-LGBT beliefs and has campaigned against gay marriage and ‘transgenderism’ which they describe as ‘anti-Christian’.
The siblings were previously accused of sharing flyers on a university campus which implicitly connected gay marriage to paedophilia and incest.
As Burke’s sentence came to an end, his father, Seán is set to begin a two-month sentence for assaulting garda Victoria Fisher in a courtroom scuffle which left her with bruising after she was knocked over and fell on a radiator.
His sister Ammi, 33, was cleared of obstructing another police officer in the same incident which saw Burke family matriarch Martina escorted from the hearing for shouting at judges.
Ammi is not the only sibling of the ex-teacher to have experienced a brush with the judicial system – with several of the 10 siblings subject to controversy over the years.
