The university has distanced itself from Dr Mark Gilfillan’s extreme comments.

The research associate of Irish Jewish History at Ulster University made the comments in Facebook posts discussing the case of a bakery that refused to bake a pro-gay marriage cake.

He said: ” God or no God, there’s no such thing as homosexuality. Just a bizarre fetish that has resulted in 72% of new cases of HIV coming from the population group practising this fetish even though they represent under 2% of the population at large.

“Why can’t one simply be disgusted by the practice, by hundreds of thousands of disease infected men, of a bizarre fetish, accompanied by a sick and oversexualised ‘culture’?

“The only reason ‘gays’ are indulged in modern society is because we now worship minority status. He then added; “These people, and their fate, are tragic. They deserve sympathy. I see no reason why they should be encouraged, however, or indulged in their belief that their parody of marriage is valid.”

He also argued there was “conclusive proof” of a link between homosexuality and child abuse.

Ulster University said in a statement: “This individual was commenting in a solely personal capacity and not as a university representative. The university is currently investigating the matter.

[These views are] in no way supported by the university which prides itself on being inclusive and on welcoming staff and students of all backgrounds and beliefs.”

According to the Belfast Telegraph, Dr Gilfillan said the comments were made to a small group of people, and he was not affiliated with Ulster University at the time.