News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Monk jailed for abuse
A monk has been jailed for seven years for abusing students at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent in East Lothian, Scotland. Michael Murphy, 82, who was known as Brother Benedict, denied the 15 charges of assault and indecent assault involving eight boys between 1971 and 1981. At the High Court in Edinburgh Lord Uist told the De La Salle brother: “Your continued denial of these crimes shows that you have no remorse or regret. It has taken a long time for justice to catch up with you, but the day of reckoning has now arrived.”

A Christian NHS worker who was found guilty by her employer of harassment and bullying for giving a Muslim employee a book about Christianity has lost her appeal. Victoria Wasteney, 39, was suspended for nine months and given a written warning for praying with the woman and inviting her to church. She challenged the decision at an employment tribunal in 2015 and lost, but was given the chance to appeal. Speaking after she lost on Thursday, Miss Wasteney said: “What the court clearly failed to do was to say how, in today’s politically correct world, any Christian can even enter into a conversation with a fellow employee on the subject of religion and not, potentially, later end up in an employment tribunal.”

The Catholic Church has a duty to stand up for persecuted atheists, the Bishop of Clifton, Declan Lang, has said. Writing in The Catholic Universe about the recent murder of atheist bloggers and authors in Bangladesh, Bishop Lang said the persecution of atheists is “a grave violation of human dignity throughout the world”. He praised Christians’ work in standing up for persecuted minorities in northern Iraq and Southeast Asia, but warned: “Our compassion must never be limited only to people of faith.”