UK Magistrate Fired for Being Different, Looking Out for Best Interests of Children

Magistrate Fired for Being Normal
(March 10, 2016)

Attachment 3700

The homosexual perversion of contemporary western society has gone so far that a magistrate in England has been sacked merely for expressing the opinion that placing children in the care of same-sex couples is not in their best interest.

Richard Page, a magistrate in Maidstone, Kent, told the Christian Concern (CC) website that he had been removed from office by the Lord Chancellor after sharing his personal conviction in a media interview that there is not enough evidence to show that placing children in the care of same-sex couples is in their best interest.

The media interview took place on March 12, 2015, with BBC news reporter Caroline Wyatt. In the interview, Page said: “My responsibility as a magistrate, as I saw it, was to do what I considered best for the child, and my feeling was therefore that it would be better if it was a man and woman who were the adopted parents.”

Page, who had been a magistrate for fifteen years and who sat on the Family Panel of the Kent Central Magistrates Court, had less than a month to run as a Justice of the Peace. Yet the Lord Chancellor, Conservative Party Minister Michael Gove, has used this case to make a political statement, the CC said.

As the CC site pointed out, it was “somewhat ironic” that the interview for which Page has been dismissed occurred as part of a TV debate about Christians being squeezed out of public life.

The BBC program followed research conducted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission about challenges to freedom of religion and belief in the UK.

Page was first challenged by his seniors in late 2014 when, after hearing an adoption case, he could not agree with his fellow magistrates that placing a child into the care of a same-sex couple was “in the child’s best interest.”

He said he came to his decision having weighed the evidence presented to the Court and therefore, in good conscience, could not vote to make the order.

He was subsequently reported for his actions, reprimanded, and forced to attend “re-education training,” which he duly did.

Page said he believed that the government decision to place children with same-sex couples lacks any solid, reliable psychological or educational research concerning the effects on children.

These media comments were again brought to the attention of his seniors and an investigation was carried out by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office’s disciplinary panel. They recommended to the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor that Page should be removed from office.

Commenting on his sacking, Page said that as a “highly experienced magistrate, I have made judgments on thousands of cases and in each case, have come to my decision based on the evidence, and the evidence alone, placed before me and my colleagues. That is the oath which I took when I became a Justice of the Peace.

“When you sit in a Family Court, you have a huge responsibility to ensure the overall well-being of the children who are being recommended to be placed into new families.

“You weigh the reports and references before you and the evidence you hear. In the case of same-sex couples adopting children, it has only been a relatively short time that same-sex couples have been able to adopt and foster and therefore, there has not been time for a proper analysis to be carried out into the effects such placements have on the children’s educational, emotional, and developmental wellbeing.


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Related:
Christian Magistrate Removed from Office for Belief About Family