Jailed teacher Enoch Burke has told the High Court that a newspaper article claiming he was annoying other prisoners with his religious beliefs was 'pure invention' and 'completely without foundation'.
Jailed teacher Enoch Burke has told the High Court that a newspaper article claiming he was annoying other prisoners with his religious beliefs was"pure invention" and"completely without foundation".
Mr Burke is being detained in Mountjoy Prison for his refusal to comply with court orders not to attend Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath which dismissed him over what he said was standing up for his religious beliefs over transgenderism. The defendants, he added, had right from the beginning denied his reputation had been injured and refused to acknowledge any damage whatsoever.
He said the libel struck at the core of who he was and his personal attributes of"honour, empathy and integrity". He arrived on a committal landing, he added, not knowing what to expect. He was placed in a"dark and dirty cell" with a blue mattress adding:"You had to put the linen on yourself". He was given tennis shoes and free hair cuts by his fellow prisoners who would often ask him for his sugar because he did not eat sugar.
Mr Bruke said a later article was published in the Sunday Independent on 9 October with the headline"Burke moved to new jail cell as he in annoying other prisoners". When he went into Mountjoy Prison, he said, he knew he was going to a place where people were traumatised and he needed to be cautious and sensitive and if"anything it was a time to listen to people".
Other comments said"imagine being locked up with Enoch Burke, you’d beg the warden for solitary confinement".
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