In Mr C Wint v Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council [2025] UKET 1306321/2023, the claimant, a housing support officer at Walsall MBC, was a practising Christian born in the UK to Jamaican parents. He was off work sick from June 2022 to March 2023 with a bad back, then again from July 2023. He had not returned to work by the time of the hearing [31-33].

The case revolved around various comments made to him by colleagues but, in particular, a comment made by one Miss Shone, who allegedly said something to him like “I should have sent you a voodoo doll with pins in it” – but the precise words were disputed [43]. Mr Wint said that the comment was targeted at him as a Black Jamaican [45]. He made a claim for harassment, saying that Miss Shone’s alleged comment related to Voodoo and Voodooism, that as a Christian he was offended by it, and that the alleged comment was made because she was aware that Voodoo and witchcraft were in his view prevalent in black Jamaican and African culture [3].

The Tribunal rejected his claim [175], and the details of the case need not concern us further. What is very interesting from the point of view of “law and religion”, however, is that the Tribunal proceeded to consider whether Voodoo / Voodooism amounted to a religion and/or a religious or philosophical belief [119-147]. Continue reading →