Spiritualist sacked by police wins ruling over his faith in psychics
Chris Smyth, Timesonline
A police trainer sacked for saying that psychics should be used to solve crimes must have his views respected as a religious faith, a judge ruled yesterday.
Alan Power, 62, claims that he was forced out of his job because he is a spiritualist who believes that the souls of the dead can be contacted.
In a significant ruling at the central London employment tribunal yesterday, Judge Peter Clark dismissed an appeal by Greater Manchester Police Authority that Mr Power’s beliefs did not amount to a religious or philosophical viewpoint.
The force’s lawyers said that the decision could open the floodgates to similar cases. Last week, the environmental campaigner Tim Nicholson successfully argued that beliefs in climate change should be protected under the same legislation.
Mr Power, who worked for Greater Manchester Police for three weeks in October last year, was sacked over his work with neighbouring police forces and his “current work in the psychic field”, the tribunal heard. He said that he had a “belief in psychics and their usefulness in police investigations” and that this was “not justification for dismissal”.
At a previous hearing in Manchester, Judge Peter Russell ruled that Mr Power’s views were “capable of being religious beliefs” under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations Act 2003. “In this case I am satisfied that, in common with other spiritualists, the claimant believes in the existence of a god, that there is life after death and that the dead can be contacted through mediums,” he said.
He judged that the beliefs “are worthy of respect in a democratic society and have sufficient cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance to fall into the category of a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 regulations”.
The police authority’s argument that this ruling was perverse was rejected by Judge Clark yesterday. “There is no suggestion that the claimant does not genuinely believe in the tenets of the faith,” he said.
He added that he was also unconvinced by the force’s claim that Judge Russell’s reasoning was inadequate.
Mark Hill, QC, for the authority, said that the decision would encourage other fringe viewpoints to seek to have their beliefs protected and “open the floodgates to an extraordinary number of like cases”. He said that Mr Power’s evidence was uncompelling and frivolous.
But Mr Power told the tribunal that his beliefs had been held from childhood, when he would see ghosts. “I don’t need any other evidence,” he said. He has regularly attended a spiritualist church since 1980, and also did so between the ages of 15 and 21.
According to the 2001 census, spiritualism is the eighth largest faith group in Britain, with 32,000 adherents, the hearing was told.
The ruling means that Mr Power will have the opportunity to argue that he was forced out of his job on the basis of his beliefs before an employment tribunal in Manchester later this month.
Outside the tribunal, Mr Power, of Birkenhead, Wirral, said that he was delighted by the judge’s decision. “It’s fantastic,” he said. “It proves that spiritualism is a religion worthy of respect.”
He added: “I have not claimed any costs. I am not claiming compensation. It is about hurt feelings. I expect my religion to be respected.”
Modern spiritualism was brought to Britain from America in the late 19th century. There are now more than 300 spiritualist churches in the country.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
