We only answer to God: What Christian couple in planning row ‘told council’
THEY said the only authority they recognised was God’s.
Now a Christian couple may face the wrath of a Crown Court judge, after they were accused of flouting planning rules.
Laine Shepherd, 44, and her husband Stephen, 46, were told by a council to stop using their farm as a campsite as they did not have planning permission.
But the couple refused, a court heard – and instead quoted lengthy sections of the Bible.
They allegedly said it would be a sin to carry out the ‘orders of Caesar’ – meaning Devon’s Torridge District Council. It was an apparent reference to ‘render therefore unto Caesar’, a phrase used by Jesus in Matthew 22:21.
The couple are now on trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of failing to comply with an enforcement notice, a charge they both deny. Robert Redfern, prosecuting, said Laine Shepherd owned Basset Farm in Chilsworthy, an eight-acre smallholding where she kept pigs, sheep and chickens.
A complaint was made about a caravan being on the farm and the council served an enforcement notice in January 2017, telling her not to use the site for residential purposes.
Mrs Shepherd responded with a letter saying she was ‘not a member of your society, or any other, than the society of mankind’, the court heard.
She also said that her only duty was to ‘ Our father almighty God’ and not Torridge District Council. She went on to quote Matthew 6:24, writing: ‘ No man can serve two masters.’
When the council tried to get more information about what the land was being used for, Mrs Shepherd allegedly refused to comply, but said she would share information for £10,000.
By December 2017 Basset Farm had its own Facebook
‘The one true authority’
page, said Mr Redfern, which indicated it was operating as a campsite.
He said the enforcement notice was served after meetings with Mrs Shepherd had failed to resolve the matter. The couple were given six months to comply but failed, said the prosecutor.
In October Mrs Shepherd sent letters to the council quoting Exodus, Job and Luke. She wrote: ‘ God is the one true authority and I would be seen to turn against him by carrying out the orders from Caesar.’
Mr and Mrs Shepherd, who are representing themselves, are yet to give evidence.
The trial continues.