RE teacher asks court to rule on ‘sin’ claim

A RELIGIOUS education teacher who said homosexuality was a sin during an online discussion is hoping a judge will rule that university bosses were wrong to throw him off a social work course.

Felix Ngole, 39, of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, says he was lawfully expressing a traditional Christian view and has complained that bosses at Sheffield University unfairly stopped him completing a postgraduate degree.

Sheffield University bosses wanted Mr Ngole’s legal challenge blocked. Lawyers for the university said the decision to remove him from the course had been fair and proportionate.

They said he was taking a “professionally qualifying degree” with the aim of becoming a social worker and argued that what he had said would affect gay people he might work with.

But a judge yesterday gave him the go-ahead to mount a judicial review challenge in the High Court. Deputy High Court Judge James Lewis, who analysed Mr Ngole’s claim at a preliminary High Court hearing in London, said he had an arguable case.

Lawyers expect a trial to be staged later this year. Mr Ngole, who works as a supply teacher and comes from Cameroon, said afterwards that the case had implications for others.

He is being backed by the Christian Legal Centre - which is part of the campaign group Christian Concern.

“The university’s treatment of Felix fundamentally violates its responsibilities under human rights legislation,” said Christian Legal Centre chief executive Andrea Williams.

In 2015, Mr Ngole had been taking part in an “open debate” on a Facebook page about Kim Davis, a state official in the US state of Kentucky, who refused to register same-sex marriages.