A Midlands priest banned last year by tribunal from officiating in the Church of England for 10 years after it found him guilty of adultery, has lost his case for unfair dismissal.The Rev Patrick Okechi was sacked as vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd with St John in West Bromwich three years ago, and was sanctioned by an ecclesiastical court in 2008.
At an employment tribunal hearing in Birmingham last week, Mr Okechi was told by the court that he had missed the deadline for filing an application for relief.
Mr Okechi told the court the lawyer provided by the diocese to assist him in his defence had colluded with the diocese to wreck his appeal.
He claimed that he had been told by the diocese that he should have an attorney, and “the Church of England insisted on me having their own solicitors who I felt misled me.”
He argued that he had instructed his lawyer to begin an appeal of his dismissal in December 2008, but she took no action. His appeal was further delayed by his eviction from the parish vicarage in West Bromwich in July.
“I have been homeless because the respondent evicted me and I have been practically on the streets,” he told the tribunal.
However, he was given until last Friday to provide documentary evidence that the Diocese had acted against him.
At the hearing Dr Okechi withdrew the charges.
Responding to the judgement, Gavin Drake, director of communications for the Diocese of Lichfield, said: “This has been a very long process for all concerned. But the Employment Tribunal claim is now at an end, the vicarage has been vacated and a new priest has been appointed to the Church of the Good Shepherd. The parish can now look forward to the future with a fresh start and we are delighted to have reached this point at long last.”
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