Student prepares for next round of legal battle after being thrown off Sheffield University course over derogatory online comments
Felix Ngole, of Barnsley, who said he was expressing a traditional Christian view and complained that Sheffield University bosses unfairly stopped him completing a postgraduate degree, has mounted an appeal after losing a High Court fight.
COURT: South Yorkshire sex offender back before the courts after being caught out by ‘paedophile hunter’ group In October 2017, Deputy High Court judge Rowena Collins Rice ruled that university bosses had acted within the law following a High Court trial in London.
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Hide AdThree appeal judges are listed to hear Mr Ngole's challenge to that decision at a Court of Appeal hearing in London today.
Mr Ngole claimed that his rights to freedom of speech and thought, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, had been breached.
But lawyers representing the university argued that he had shown ‘no insight,’ and said the decision to remove him from the course was fair and proportionate.
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Hide AdThey said Mr Ngole had been studying for a professional qualification, and university bosses had to consider his fitness to practise.
Judge Collins Rice said freedom of religious discourse was a public good of great importance.
But she said social workers had considerable power over the lives of vulnerable people, and said trust was a precious professional commodity.
Mr Ngole posted comments in 2015, when in his late 30s, the judge was told.
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Hide AdHe was taking part in a debate on a Facebook page about Kim Davis, an official in the US state of Kentucky, who refused to register same-sex marriages.
Mr Ngole said he had argued that Mrs Davis's position was based on the ‘Biblical view of same-sex marriage as a sin’.
He said he was making a ‘genuine contribution’ to an important public debate and said he was ‘entitled to express his religious views’.
University bosses said he had posted comments on a publicly accessible Facebook page which were ‘derogatory of gay men and bisexuals’.