Court blind to visions of headmistress

AN ACTION which cited 59 defendants including the Pope, Lord Mackay and the Home Secretary as co-respondents in the "unfair, wrongful and illegal" sacking of a Catholic school headmistress has been dismissed by the High Court.

The case, brought by litigant-in-person Frances Warburton Staley, was struck out in the Chancery Division last week by Mr Justice Blackburn.

The action, which also named judges, barristers and solicitors, concerned the 1993 dismissal of Staley from the Rosary Roman Catholic Infant and Nursery School.

Staley claimed her role at the school was terminated after information was released about visions she had of God, the Virgin Mary and Jesus. She claimed church authorities told the school of the visions, which she had confided to high-ranking Catholic church members of the faith. Other defendants had then either perjured themselves or colluded with the alleged perjuries, she claimed.