Rebel Catholic priest who was too conservative for the CofE confesses he secretly 'married' a Muslim man in sham ceremony to help him stay in the UK

Fa ther Donald Mi nchew admitted entering into a civil partnership as a favour to a family friend, Mustajab Hussain, desperate to work in Britain

Last night the Home Office said it was 'determined to crack down on immigration offenders' and Mr Hussain now faces a possible deportation

Father Minchew could face prosecution for assisting unlawful immigration for entering the sham 'marriage' in 2008, while he was still a CofE vicar



A high-profile Catholic priest has been suspended after a Mail on Sunday investigation discovered he was in a sham ‘gay marriage’ to help a Pakistani immigrant stay in Britain.



Father Donald Minchew – a former Anglican who converted to Catholicism after attacking the Church of England’s loss of traditional values – admitted entering into a civil partnership as a favour to a family friend desperate to work in Britain.



Last night the Home Office said it was ‘determined to crack down on immigration offenders’ and Mustajab Hussain now faces an investigation and possible deportation.

Father Donald Minchew (left) admitted to entering into a civil partnership as a favour to a family friend, Mustajab Hussain, who was desperate to work in Britain. Mr Hussain (right) now faces possible deportation



Father Minchew could also face prosecution for assisting unlawful immigration for entering the sham ‘marriage’ in 2008, while he was still a Church of England vicar.



The civil partnership certificate shows the event at the register office in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was witnessed by David Nicholas and Edward Minchew, the priest’s brother.



Confronted by The Mail on Sunday last week Father Minchew said: ‘You are talking to a ruined man. I am finished. End of story.’



The 66-year-old widower and father of four insisted he was not homosexual and claimed 32-year-old Mr Hussain, a Muslim who also has a wife, had been a long-standing family friend as their fathers served together during the Second World War.

The priest claimed his father, the late Harry Minchew, who was in the Royal Marines, met Muhmmad Sadiq, now a retired Pakistani government official, when he was posted to India in 1940. But when



The Mail on Sunday spoke to Mr Sadiq in Islamabad, he said he had never met Mr Minchew nor served in the army.



Speaking about the civil partnership at his comfortable home in Croydon, South London, the priest said: ‘It was the only way I could see of getting him in the country.’



Under Home Office rules, immigrants in civil partnerships have to show they are in a genuine relationship before they are granted rights to stay in the UK.



Yet Father Minchew said he and Mr Hussain had not seen each other for ‘donkey’s years’.

This certificate shows that Father Minchew entered a civil partnership with Mr Hussain in Cheltenham in 2008

The priest initially told The Mail on Sunday he would resign, but after a meeting with senior Church leaders, he has now been ‘withdrawn from public ministry’ pending an investigation.



Mr Hussain corroborated Father Minchew’s version of events when we spoke to him outside Croydon furniture store Beds4U, of which he is a director. He said: ‘He helped me. That’s it. There is nothing more.’



Father Minchew could also face prosecution for assisting unlawful immigration

He said he had recently been in Islamabad where his wife lived, but he refused to comment on his immigration status.



However he later backtracked, suggesting there had been a gay relationship between him and the cleric, though he produced no evidence for this.



Father Minchew admitted he had not told the Catholic Church that he was in a civil partnership, adding: ‘That is an omission on my part and I will have to pay the price for it.’

He added, however, that he was not ashamed of what he had done, saying it had ‘no bearing on my ministry’.



Father Minchew made headlines in 2012 when he criticised the Church of England before defecting with about 70 members his congregation from St Michael and All Angels in Croydon to St Mary’s Catholic Church, a few minutes’ walk away.



The priest branded the Church of England as ‘banal’, criticised progressive policies such as women priests, and said ‘you can pick and choose which doctrines you follow’.



The Church of England allows its clergy to enter civil partnerships if they assure their bishop their relationship is celibate, but the Catholic Church ‘strongly opposes’ same-sex unions. The scandal follows the jailing of several Church of England clergy for conducting sham marriages to help immigrants get round the law.

