Prison chaplains ‘routinely hand out anti-gay leaflets’ to inmates
A review has found that government-appointed prison chaplains have routinely distributed homophobic literature to prisoners.
The review, was ordered last year by Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove, over concerns surrounding Muslim chaplains in UK prisons.
The Times newspaper reports that “it uncovered misogynistic and homophobic leaflets, hate tracts encouraging the murder of apostates and ultra-conservative Islamic literature preaching contempt for basic British values”.
It also found that the literature made available to inmates went through little or no scrutiny for suitability, meaning that potentially extremist material was able to be included
The report was completed last month but has not yet been cleared for publication.
The newspaper added that the impending publication has sparked “an urgent internal alert in the Ministry of Justice that warned of a risk of severe reputation al damage to the department”.
Last month, a Christian prison gardener who told gay people to ‘repent’ lost his legal challenge – after claiming he was unfairly persecuted for his faith.
The row began when the gardener at HMP Littlehey in Bedfordshire, Barry Trayhorn, began helping with chapel services due to his work as a Pentecostal minister.
However during a chapel service in 2014, he told the “sexually immoral” and “men who have sex with men” that they must abandon their sins to “inherit the kingdom of God”.
After he was told to steer away from the subject he resigned, and took up legal action with the help of Christian charities, claiming that he was simply spreading “God’s word” and that he was being persecuted because of his views about “homosexual behaviour”.
