Ex-Magistrate Loses Battle Over Same Sex Adoptions

A former magistrate who says he was forced to resign because he would not place children for adoption with gay couples has lost his employment tribunal appeal.

Andrew McClintock, aged 63, from Sheffield, launched the appeal after a hearing earlier this year failed to accept Sheffield Magistrates’ Court had acted unreasonably.

Mr McClintock stepped down from the court’s family bench after he was refused permission to opt-out of cases which could result in a same-sex adoption.

He claimed he was discriminated against for his Christian beliefs and took the court to a tribunal.

But, after losing the case, he lodged an appeal with the Employment Appeal Tribunal, a division of the High Court. But he has now been told he has lost that hearing, also.

Mr McClintock, of Nether Edge, said he will continue his fight in the Court of Appeal.

The tribunal heard the father of four believed gay adoption was an ‘experiment in social science’.

A member of the Christian People’s Alliance Council, he had served as a magistrate in the family courts in Sheffield for 15 years.