CLAIMS THAT JAILED former teacher Enoch Burke has been sentenced to “life” in prison for his beliefs have spread internationally, despite Burke being free to leave prison by simply affirming he will no longer illegally trespass at a school.

Claims that Burke was jailed for his beliefs have been debunked by The Journal many, many times.

However, claims that he is incarcerated for life have surged since he was brought to Mountjoy at the end of November.

“Judge jails Enoch Burke for Christmas with effective life sentence,” reads a post on Enoch Burke’s official X account. “His only ‘crime’ is that he refuses to endorse transgenderism and bow to a satanic ideology,” it says, falsely.

The post has been seen more than 4,300,000 times since being posted on 3 December.

International accounts have also repeated the same claim.

“Anyone claiming that @EnochBurke hasn’t been sentenced to life for refusing to submit to gender ideology, but simply for “contempt of court” is dishonest,” beings a very long post on X by Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch far-right commentator who shares misinformation and conspiracy theories.

In the post, viewed more than 273,500 times since being published on 4 December, Vlaardingerbroek says Burke was fired by the school for “refusing to forsake his beliefs”.

This is simply untrue — for one thing, Burke was not formally dismissed from the school until January 2023, at which stage Burke had not been working at Wilson’s for months and had already been jailed (and subsequently released) for breaking court orders at the school. 

(Burke is appealing his dismissal, and is technically still paid a teacher’s salary. However, this payment has been ordered by a court to be given directly to his old school to pay for damages owed by Burke for trespassing).

Futhermore, while Burke had disagreed with the school’s accommodation of a student’s preferred pronouns, he was suspended for something else: Burke interrupted a church service held to mark the school’s 260th anniversary, during which he was alleged to have followed the principal around, loudly and publicly questioning her.

Reasons for the arrest

In the judgement this November ordering Burke to be brought back to prison, Judge Cregan said the court order requiring him to stay away from Wilson’s was not about Burke’s beliefs.

He said the former teacher was “perfectly entitled to have and to articulate” his views about transgender people, but that he had been imprisoned and fined because he had breached the court’s order to stay away from the school.

He said Burke had engaged in a “mendacious campaign full of misinformation and disinformation” by claiming that he had been jailed because of his opposition to transgender people.

“That is completely false. He has been jailed because he has breached court orders directing him not to trespass on school property,” Cregan said.

The judge further said the idea that he was jailed for his religious beliefs was ‘nonsense’ and that his imprisonment was because he was trespassing on other people’s property. “No more, no less,” he added. 

Burke’s thoughts may have spurred his actions, but that is the case for most crimes. It is no more true to say that he was arrested for his thoughts on transgender people than to say a car thief was imprisoned for their appreciation of BMWs.

‘Life’?

The claim that Enoch Burke has been sentenced to life in prison is widespread online.

To be clear: Enoch Burke has not been sentenced to life in prison. At a hearing earlier this week, Judge Cregan gave Burke an opportunity to purge his contempt. Burke refused.

Burke also made it clear that he does not consider himself in contempt of court (which he is) and that he should be free to enter the grounds of the school that he has not worked at for years.

Judge Cregan told Mr Burke he would not be released until he purges his contempt. This appears to be the crux of the claim that Burke is sentenced to life in prison. Theoretically, if Burke never purges his contempt, it’s not clear when, if ever, he would be released.

However, purging his contempt does not mean that Burke has to call a child by their preferred gender pronouns, or even admit he was wrong about how he has behaved. To purge his contempt, Burke has to say he would no longer illegally trespass on the grounds of the school. He has to say he will stop committing the transgression that put him in prison.

Burke had been released from custody multiple times without purging his contempt, often during school holidays in the hopes that he would abide by the court’s orders against trespassing at the school. Each time, he resumed protesting and trespassing once the school term began again.

Comparing Burke’s imprisonment to a life sentence is wildly misleading. Burke can, effectively, end his imprisonment at any time just by saying he’ll stop breaking court orders. Instead, Burke is insisting that what he is doing is legal, and says he plans to continue doing it.

While this may result in a very lengthy stay in prison, it is disingenuous to compare it to being “sentenced to life” in jail.

Life sentences are reserved for very serious crimes, such as murder. Despite the name, many prisoners sentenced to “life” are released as there is a possibility of parole after 12 years.

However, none of those criminals who have been sentenced to life in prison can end their incarceration by, for example, saying they won’t commit the same crime again. 

Burke is, in effect, in prison by his own choice.

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