A judge has “emphatically” rejected accusations emailed into the court by teacher Enoch Burke, which suggested he was “mocked” and “ridiculed” in the court in Dublin earlier in the week.
Mr Justice Alex Owens said that Mr Burke’s behaviour before the High Court on Tuesday, where he raised concerns about discovery documents and redactions with in it, was “unacceptable”.
“I felt I was being dealt with unfairly by Mr Burke,” he said on Friday morning. “It’s necessary to call a spade a spade, one can be too polite about these things.”
Mr Burke has not returned to the courtroom since Tuesday afternoon after Mr Justice Alex Owens warned him that he could only return if he accepted the authority of the court he was appearing before.
The judge has repeatedly directed the legal team representing Wilson’s Hospital School to inform Mr Burke that he is welcome to attend court under this condition, and can watch proceedings online otherwise.
Since Tuesday afternoon, the court has not heard from Mr Burke on how he intends to be involved in the case.
The case has continued without Mr Burke or a legal representative for him being present, with witnesses called by the school without cross-examination.
The board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School and Mr Burke are in a dispute that stems from incidents following a request from the school’s then-principal last May to address a student by a new name and the pronoun “they”.
Mr Burke, an Evangelical Christian, maintains the case is about the freedom to express his religious beliefs.
On Friday morning, the judge indicated that witnesses who were present because they had been subpoenaed by Mr Burke could leave, as he was not present to call them, and that the case had closed.
The judge remarked that it was a “very unfortunate situation”.
Representatives for the school were delivering closing statements when the judge was informed that Mr Burke had sent in a “big, long” email, and proceedings were adjourned to allow for the email to be printed off.
Mr Justice Owens then read out the email sent in by Mr Burke, where he claimed he had been “unjustfully barred” and made an application for the digital audio of proceedings.
He also repeated concerns he had raised on Tuesday and claimed that when he brought up these issues in court “I was repeatedly laughed at” and “mocked and ridiculed by the judge”.
He also said that he had gone to the home of the chairman of the board of management, John Rogers, on the evening before the case began.
The court heard that he went to his home at 10.50pm on Monday in order to furnish him with a subpoena, and that Mr Rogers’ wife had refused to tell Mr Burke where he was.
Mark Connaughton SC, representing Wilson’s Hospital School, rejected Mr Burke’s accusation that Mr Rogers was attempting to avoid a subpoena.
He said that he had already told the court days previous that Mr Rogers had been admitted to hospital, and that this would affect him appearing as a witness on behalf of the school.
Mr Connaughton said that Mr Burke’s email gave “no credit”, except for a short few paragraphs, to the detailed response given by his colleague Alex White SC to the concerns brought up by Mr Burke on Tuesday, despite “the poisonous way” in which they were raised.
Concluding the discussion about the email, Mr Justice Owens said: “You can’t hope to win a game of soccer by running away with the ball.”
He said that the ball has been replaced, and the game continues, “if I can use that metaphor”.
