Prison over Christmas unless contempt of court is purged

ENOCH Burke will remain in prison over Christmas unless he purges his contempt of court, a judge has ordered.

- BY CILLIAN SHERLOCK

Mr Burke has been detained in Mountjoy Prison since late November for breaches of a court order directing him not to trespass at Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he worked as a teacher.

He has been engaged in a legal dispute with the board of the school stemming from a request in 2022 from the then-principal that a student be addressed by a new name and pronoun.

Since then, Mr Burke has been found to have repeatedly trespassed on school property in breach of court orders.

He was brought before the High Court in Dublin yesterday for a hearing on several matters relating to the dispute.

At the outset of the hearing, Mr Justice Brian Cregan warned Mr Burke, who was accompanied by his father and one of his brothers, that if there was any interruption from any member of his family, he was going to ask them all to leave the courtroom as he was "not going to tolerate any further interruption".

It came after gardai were directed to remove members of the Burke family from the court during previous sittings.