A teacher sent to jail for contempt of court in a bitter transgender row is being detained in isolation.
Devout Christian Enoch Burke is locked up in a cell on his own and is not allowed to mix with other inmates at Mountjoy.
A prison source said: “At the moment he is being kept in isolation and is not saying a whole lot to staff. He is keeping his own counsel.
“The case has been adjourned for a week so we will see how he gets on.
“To be put in isolation is the normal procedure for new prisoners sent to Mountjoy and especially someone who was never in jail before.”
READ MORE: Irish schoolteacher returns to jail over refusal to comply with court order
The source added that Burke is being held in the C wing. He was put in isolation primarily to insure he does not have Covid which is normal practice.
After refusing to address the transgender student with the pronoun “they”, Burke was suspended with full pay from his job as a history and German teacher at Wilson’s Hospital School, Co Westmeath, which has a Church of Ireland ethos.
He subsequently refused to comply with a High Court injunction instructing him to stay away from the college, leading to his arrest.
He defended himself and told High Court judge Mr Justice Max Barrett that if he had to remain in prison for “every hour of every day for the next 100 years” he would not compromise his religious beliefs.
The teacher added he was being denied his constitutional right to his religious freedom, that transgenderism was contrary to scripture and that he would “only obey God”.
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