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A 2018 photo of St. John the Baptist Church of England in Derbyshire, U.K.
Matthew Drapper's attorney believes this is the first time a church paid damages after conducting conversion therapy.
The Church of England paid a five-figure settlement to a gay man who endured an exorcism to purge his “sexual impurity.”
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Matthew Drapper sued the church after he attended an “Encounter God Weekend” that ended with his being coerced into a ritual to drive gay urges out of his body, he told The Times. He volunteered at St. Thomas Philadelphia, a Sheffield church, at the time, and was invited to the event at what he believed to be a “contemporary, welcoming church.”
But Drapper, 37, described the exorcism ritual in foreboding terms.
“Looking back it seems like something out of a horror movie — for someone to be standing over you saying they can see the demons leaving your body is quite terrifying,” Drapper told the newspaper. “But when you are deeply tied into the church, as I was at that time, it is easy to believe anything they tell you.”
The experience led him to abandon Christianity, he said.
Church leaders at St. Thomas initially denied Drapper’s allegations that such an event occurred, but an investigation by local charity Barnardo’s, commissioned by the Diocese of Sheffield, found evidence that the exorcism did occur, but was billed as a “prayer session.”
“From the evidence available to us it is our view that the session took place as described by [Mr. Drapper] and prayers were administered with the intention of changing his sexual identity,” the investigation report reads, as reported by The Telegraph.
The United Kingdom has been moving forward with legislation to ban conversion therapy. Drapper alleged in a 2022 legal complaint that the exorcism was a form of such therapy. The victim ultimately reached a five-figure settlement rather than taking the matter to court.
“I would have liked to have this matter heard in open court but the church’s insurers argued my claim was beyond the legal time limit and I knew we could face a lengthy legal process,” Drapper told The Times.
His attorney believes the settlement to be the first damages paid by a church in the U.K. to a conversion therapy survivor.
“As far as I am aware this is the first-ever payment of damages in respect of harm caused by conversion or exorcism practices,” lawyer Richard Scorer said. “It demonstrates that churches which engage in these abhorrent homophobic practices may face legal claims and damages awards, and I hope it will encourage churches to ban such practices entirely.”
