The gay couple who won damages from Christian hotel owners for refusing them a bed are suing to get even more money from them, according to documents filed at the Court of Appeal.
Steven Preddy and Martyn Hall said the owners were let off too lightly because of their Christian beliefs.
Peter and Hazelmary Bull now face having to pay the couple thousands of pounds more in compensation.
Civil partners Mr Preddy, 38, and Mr Hall, 46, of Bristol, won their case in January and were awarded £1,800 each.
The move led yesterday to fresh protests that the might of the State is being used to sweep away any remaining claim Christianity has to a hearing in the courts.
Mr and Mrs Bull, who run the Chymorvah Hotel in their seven-bedroom home in Cornwall, had turned away the men on the grounds that their policy is to let double rooms only to married couples.
In January Judge Andrew Rutherford, at Bristol County Court, ruled that the Bulls had broken sexual orientation regulations under the Equality Act, because in the eyes of the law civil partnership is the same as marriage.
He said he took into account that ‘this discrimination by the defendants was due to a genuinely held Christian belief of theirs’.
According to Mr Preddy’s own evidence, the Bulls had not acted ‘in a demeaning manner’, the judge added.
Mr Preddy and Mr Hall have now applied to the Appeal Court to overturn the damages awarded against the Bulls and order much higher compensation. Their case is being presented by EHRC lawyers, according to court documents.
The couple claim the discrimination against them was wrong for whatever reason Mr and Mrs Bull acted. ‘It does not matter whether they acted with a good or indifferent motive’, their legal papers say.
Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute think-tank, which is supporting the Bulls, said: ‘It is disappointing that Mr Preddy and Mr Hall, backed by the Equality Commission, are being so mean spirited.
In his ruling in January, Judge Rutherford said: ‘It is not so very long ago that these beliefs of the defendants would have been those accepted as normal by society at large. Now it is the other way around.’ And that is an example in our view at the Horwich Nationalists on how SICK our Nation has become!
Mrs Bull, 66, whose 70-year-old husband underwent heart surgery in January, has reportedly said: ‘We’ve been hit for £3,600 already. Why are they pursuing us for more money?
‘My husband is still very ill, and this news is the last thing we needed. Thankfully, we are still receiving messages of support from the general public, including several gay couples who feel we’ve been given a rough ride.
‘We don’t bear any ill will to Mr Hall and Mr Preddy. We simply want to live and work in line with our beliefs about marriage. Can’t we just agree to disagree?’
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it was supporting Mr Preddy and Mr Hall’s appeal ‘on the technical matter of how damages in a case like this are calculated’. Or more in line with our view of following a perverse Marxist agenda, were the morality of the nation is set by the STATE!
A spokesman added for The Equality and Human Rights Commission : ‘We are trying to clarify the law in this area. I have spent a lot of time with Steven and Martyn and they have always said it was never about the money.’ then we must ask at the Horwich nationalists what is it about .in reality,
How sickening these sexual perverts, and lets define perversion, a perversion is a compulsion or feeling that overwhelms all sense of moral and ethical behaviour, leading to an unnatural act, can persecute a decent hard working decent ELDERLY couple . It shows that these so called equality laws are not a means for liberation, but a means of oppression of the decent people of this once proud Nation.
