His Honour Judge James Tayler has ruled that the previous employment tribunal decision which upheld the sacking of Rev. Dr Bernard Randall is ‘unsafe’ due to revelations of anti-Christian bias on the presiding panel.
As a result, Judge Tayler ordered Dr Randall’s case to be remitted urgently back to the Employment Tribunal for a full retrial and ordered £20,000 costs against Trent College.
Yesterday’s permission hearing ruling comes after Bernard, who is supported by the Christian Legal Centre, took legal action against Trent College in Derbyshire following his dismissal for a sermon he gave in 2019.
The sermon was on the CofE’s own teaching on marriage, in a CofE chapel, in a school with a CofE ethos.
He gave the sermon saying it was ok for students to question and debate LGBT teaching after Trent College invited extreme gender identity group, Educate and Celebrate (E&C) into the school to ‘smash heteronormativity.’
The group has since been closed down on the quiet by the Charity Commission following a series of scandals, including one of its patrons being charged with multiple accounts of sex abuse against children, including rape and conspiracy to kidnap.
At the new hearing, Dr Randall’s legal team should be able to submit the developing Educate and Celebrate scandals as ‘new evidence.’
The previous ruling by Judge Butler suggested Dr Randall had ‘misunderstood’ the group and taken ‘an extreme view of them.’ In light of the bias ground, Judge Butler’s conclusions are now no longer relevant to the case.
Dr Randall’s case was heard at a full employment tribunal at Nottingham Justice Centre in September 2022 before a presiding panel of three, which included Judge Victoria Butler, and lay member Mr Jed Purkis.
Before and after Judge Butler’s ruling was made on the case, which found against Dr Randall on every point, Mr Purkis made a series of anti-Christian and anti-conservative posts on social media.
Mr Purkis stated: ‘Only atheists should be allowed to run for office’, accompanied by, ‘Damn right, you won’t catch us killing in the name of our non-god’.
He also said of Christians: ‘If they’re that f***ing super how come there’s so much sh*t going on in the world?’ and ‘I need no “higher power” to tell me the right way to treat people and behave…’
All of this lay undiscovered and unknown, until In March 2024, at the same Nottingham tribunal, Judge Butler and Mr Purkis also began presiding on another similar Christian Legal Centre case, involving Christian teacher, ‘Hannah’.
Coincidentally, Hannah’s case is being reheard at Nottingham Employment Tribunal this week before a differently constituted panel. One member of the panel, the ex-president of Unison, Chris Tansley, has already been recused from the hearing because of ‘actual bias.’
Hannah was taking legal action after being sacked for raising safeguarding concerns about an 8-year-old ‘transitioning’ under the guidance of Stonewall in a primary school.
During this hearing, Mr Purkis’ anti-Christian posts were discovered, and a recusal application was made by Hannah’s lawyers for ‘apparent bias’.
In a rare move, Judge Victoria Butler was forced to recuse the whole panel, including herself, and the hearing collapsed.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, supported by the senior president of tribunals and the Lord Chancellor, subsequently said that Mr Jed Purkis’ comments amounted to misconduct and he was given a formal rebuke.
Dr Randall’s lawyers then added a ‘bias’ ground to his appeal and argued in court today that there could be no sensible objection or delay to Dr Randall’s appeal proceeding on the bias ground alone.
Facing repeated delays in his pursuit of full justice, Dr Randall’s appeal was ‘stayed’ last year pending the outcome of the landmark Kristie Higgs case at the Court of Appeal.
Judge James Tayler justified the stay due to the precedent the Higgs ruling would set in a higher court for Dr Randall’s appeal.
Both cases involve issues of principle about the freedom for Christians to express their beliefs and opposition to harmful transgender ideology, sex education and extreme gender identity beliefs without fear of losing their jobs.
Earlier this month, Mrs Higgs, who has also been supported by the Christian Legal Centre, won her ground-breaking case with judges ruling that her dismissal was “disproportionate” and “constituted unlawful discrimination on the ground of religion and belief.”
‘Holding my life back’
Responding to the ruling, Dr Randall said:
“I am very pleased and thankful for today’s decision and am relieved that Judge Butler’s previous ruling has been exposed for what it was. We now start from the beginning, which gives the opportunity to bring new evidence, especially on Educate and Celebrate. Nevertheless, the continuing long wait for justice is painful and holding back my life.
“I would not be where I am now if E&C had not been invited into Trent College, it is as simple as that. As an ordained CofE minister working as a chaplain in a school with a CofE ethos, it was my duty to encourage debate and help children who were confused by the LGBT+ teaching to know that there are alternative views and beliefs on these contentious issues.
“Queer Theory, which E&C promoted, aims to “deconstruct [or smash] binaries” including the clear distinctions between adult and child, right and wrong. As such it leaves the door wide open for malignant persons to indulge some of the most wicked behaviour imaginable. It is, to say the least, wholly inappropriate in a school, and in wider society.
“The injustice of how I have been treated because I opposed the introduction of this agenda in a school should by now be obvious to all. I am only sorry it takes the disclosure of such heinous crimes clearly to reveal the dangers of the “smash heteronormativity” agenda. It is well past time for the Church of England to recognise how badly they have got this wrong and give me my life back.
“It is also very concerning that a group like E&C has been funded by the government and given so much access and influence, for they are not the only ones who promote Queer Theory. Indeed, I saw the sticky fingerprints of such activism all over the judgment which has now been set aside.
“I will keep pressing on for full justice and am thankful to everyone for their continued support and prayers.”
Justice delayed
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “Justice delayed is justice denied. It has been nearly six years since Bernard gave a sermon, and yet he is still waiting for justice.
“We welcome the decision to overturn the original ruling and the recognition of serious concerns regarding anti-Christian bias. This case has significant implications for freedom of speech and religious belief in schools.
“If Bernard is not vindicated, it sends a troubling message that teachers, chaplains, and parents who uphold Christian teaching or question radical ideological agendas will come under intense scrutiny and may face losing their jobs. This is why we remain committed to seeing justice done and will continue to support Bernard until that is achieved.”
Vindications
Since Judge Butler and Mr Purkis ruled against Dr Randall in February 2023, Dr Randall has had a series of vindications.
Prevent (the government assessors of extremist and terrorist threat), the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), and the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) have all said that he has no case to answer.
Following his sacking, in 2022 he was blacklisted as a safeguarding risk to children by the CofE in Derby Diocese for his sermon.
Dr Randall pursued a serious complaint of misconduct over the decision to blacklist him, but this was blocked by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. (ABC) However, a senior Church legal officer for clergy discipline found that the Archbishop had ‘misunderstood the scope of his powers’, and was ‘plainly wrong’.
The same investigating officer described the blacklisting of Dr Randall as ‘egregious’ and ‘gross’ error. Justin Welby was forced to order a review of the safeguarding processes within the Derby diocese.
A year since this decision, the situation is still not resolved and Dr Randall remains without ‘Permission to Officiate’ within the CofE.
Educate and Celebrate child sex charges
Furthermore, Dr Randall has been vindicated over why he gave the sermon in the first place.
In 2018 Trent College invited Educate and Celebrate (E&C), an extreme gender identity group who promote Queer Theory, into the school where he was employed as chaplain.
Revelations and scandals about E&C, which was closed quietly by the Charity Commission in 2024, continue to highlight the deep injustice at the heart of Dr Randall’s case.
In August 2024, for example, a patron of E&C, Stephen Ireland, was charged with multiple accounts of sex abuse against children, including rape and conspiracy to kidnap.
E&C was also forced to remove another leading patron, transgender comic, Jordan Grey, for stripping naked on Channel Four and playing the piano with his genitalia.
Gray had suggested that he went into schools to “talk about gender” on behalf of E&C, adding that “toddlers kind of get it straight away.”
In the ruling that has now been set aside, Employment Judge Butler wrongly asserted several times that: “E&C is an Ofsted and DfE recognised best practice programme.”
Furthermore, Judge Butler said in her judgment, that: “[Dr Randall] takes an extreme view of E&C which bears no resemblance to the reality of its purpose and implementation, which was aimed simply at creating an inclusive environment for all. We saw and heard no evidence that came anywhere close to supporting [Dr Randall’s] view that E&C would indoctrinate pupils in such a way.”
We now wait for a new date for this evidence to be considered by a newly constituted tribunal.
