A man has lost a seven-year legal battle against a Belfast bakery that refused to make him a cake emblazoned with the message “support gay marriage” after the European court of human rights ruled that his claim was inadmissible.
On Thursday, the ECHR, by a majority decision, said it would not reconsider the decision of the UK supreme court, which had overturned a ?500 damages award imposed on Ashers bakery, which is run by evangelical Christians.
Ashers had refused to produce the cake, featuring the Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie, in 2014 for Gareth Lee, who was a supporter of the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. Same-sex marriage was legalised in Northern Ireland last year.
Before the supreme court judgment in 2018, after its first hearing in Northern Ireland, a Belfast county court and a court of appeal had both ruled that the company discriminated against Lee, who is gay, on the grounds of sexual orientation.
The ECHR said the claim was inadmissible because the applicant had not invoked his rights under the European convention on human rights at any point in the domestic proceedings and had relied solely on domestic law.
More details to follow …
