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High Court rules Enoch Burke should be arrested again

A security guard stands in front of Enoch Burke at the gate of Wilson's Hospital School
A security guard stands in front of Enoch Burke at the gate of Wilson's Hospital School

The High Court has ordered that teacher Enoch Burke should be arrested again and brought before the court for breaching an injunction directing him not to trespass at Wilson's Hospital School.

The court was told his actions were having an unprecedented and significant impact on the Co Westmeath school.

Mr Burke was released from prison two days ago having spent Christmas in jail for previously breaching the court order.

However, the school’s lawyers told the court that he turned up at the school again less than 24 hours after being released and attended at the school again today.

Mr Burke was not in court when the case was called although members of his family were seen in the environs of the building earlier.

Barrister Rosemary Mallon said she had been informed shortly before the case started that Mr Burke was at the school.

Enoch Burke outside Wilson's Hospital
Enoch Burke went back to Wilson's Hospital School less than 24 hours after being released from prison

She said he had gone beyond the boundary walls of the grounds again today. And she told the court his actions were having an unprecedented and significant impact on the day to day work of the school.

Ms Mallon said Mr Burke was a member of a regulated profession with a code of conduct, but he had continued, no matter what was said to him by any judge, to turn his back on the requirement to obey the rule of law.

She outlined what the school’s principal had to do over the last two days as a result of Mr Burke.

She said he had to rearrange security at the school, liaise with the company and the security guard, address issues with students, teachers and parents trying to get past protesters and provide instructions to lawyers.

None of that, she said, was what a principal should be doing.

She said "with great regret" she was asking that Mr Burke be committed again to Mountjoy Prison.

Enoch Burke criticised Judge Brian Cregan, who delivered today's High Court order for the teacher to be arrested again.

Speaking after breaching an order to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School for a second day running, Mr Burke said the judge had done this to "make me look bad".

He accused Mr Justice Cregan of making today’s order to "curry favour with the public" and he insisted he was not trespassing at the Wilson’s Hospital School and said he was a teacher of German and history there.

"I am horrified at what the court has done, that is what is big in my mind at the moment, " Mr Burke said as he ended an almost seven-hour stint standing at the gate.

Asked how he felt about the prospect of returning to prison, he said "prison is a terrible place to be, and to be yo-yo’ed out of it back in again because of the whim of a judge who is trying to engage in an act of national deception, I would say and he is trying to deceive the public".