Barnabas Fund founder Dr Patrick Sookhdeo in unanimous “not guilty” verdict: we reveal the facts

Aug 8, 2018 by Jill

from Barnabas Fund:

Barnabas Fund is pleased to announce that Dr Patrick Sookhdeo has been found not guilty of an indecent assault alleged to have taken place in 1977. The jury of twelve at Snaresbrook Crown Court, after deliberating for less than two hours, unanimously found Dr Sookhdeo not guilty on Tuesday 31 July 2018. Dr Sookhdeo is the founder of Barnabas Fund, and we are thankful for the zeal, vision and integrity with which he has served the persecuted Church for more than quarter of a century. Although Patrick resigned as a trustee in 2015, he is well known as a founding member of Barnabas Fund and many of our supporters have asked for further details. Dr Sookhdeo and his family ask for our prayers as they continue to challenge an earlier verdict in which Patrick Sookhdeo was convicted. He is seeking leave to appeal and has always maintained his innocence.

The Snaresbrook trial, which of course took place in a secular court, took an unexpected turn. Seemingly due to a lack of evidence, the prosecution appeared to put Patrick’s faith and church practises on trial. Sadly, as has been the case in many recent trials, the police documents that might have helped the defence, either were disclosed during the trial or never disclosed (as the file had been “misplaced”). Furthermore, the prosecution witnesses contradicted themselves and one another, even though they are husband and wife, begging the question of whether this historic allegation from over 40 years ago should have been brought before the courts.

The prosecution sought to attack Patrick’s faith, and theological themes emerged throughout that should never have been raised in a secular court. We consider it is fair to describe the complainant as a liberal Christian. Her husband is a senior Anglican clergyman. Both implicitly criticised the attitude of evangelicals to Islam and Muslim people, and to that end produced as evidence for the prosecution a leaflet released by Patrick and his ministry in the 1970s.

Read here