Letter: Sordid hounding of a homosexual cleric

Sir: What excuse was there for the prurient article by Andrew Brown 'outing' Sir Derek Pattinson ('Questions over churchman's charity trip', 4 December)? Remove the prominent photographs, the sordid details (already long in the public domain) surrounding the death of a friend of his friend, and church gossip about the circumstances of his ordination and what is left but the story of a homosexual man who paid for the travel expenses of his friend when on a business trip abroad?

What has this man done to deserve such hounding - apart from being one of the many ordained clergy of the Church of England who has lived with a same-sex partner?

Yours faithfully,

JANE ROBSON

ELIZABETH STUART

Plymouth

4 December