An odd case of stalking by a lay minister has become odder: she was reportedly recommended by Bishop Anne Dyer of the Scottish Episcopal Church, who in 2022 was accused by multiple parties of bullying them.
Venessa Pinto worked as a Licensed Lay Minister in the Diocese of Leicester, was an elected delegate to General Synod, and served on the Crown Nominations Commission.
“Church insiders claimed that Dyer vouched for Pinto’s character, despite serious concerns being raised over her conduct, and facilitated her move from northeast Scotland to Leicester, where she met her victim,” Marc Horne of The Sunday Times reported.
Pinto pleaded guilty in a civil court to stalking Jay Hulme. Hulme, in the words of a promotional website, is an “award-winning transgender poet, theologian, speaker, and educator.”
Hulme was working as an usher in 2021 when Pinto first visited St. Nicholas Church in Leicester. Hulme said that after Pinto made a few more visits to the parish, she asked Hulme out.
“I was very taken aback, because I didn’t know her,” Hulme told the BBC. “And I was like, ‘I’m gay, but thank you for asking.’ But she asked me if it was because she was black.”
Then the reaction grew more intense. In a BBC report by Aleem Maqbool and Steve Swann, Hulme provided screenshots of direct messages. “Am I not a human being that deserves to be treated with dignity and respect?” one message said, appearing beside a sketch of feces.
Other messages became more pointed and aggressive:
“Go and kill [yourself]. That will make my life so much easier. DIE! I mean it. Monster!!”
“You could also drink rat poison. I mean that’s a painless way of dying.”
Hulme reported the messages to Leicester Police but was not satisfied with the response. He gathered evidence that he later submitted to the Diocese of Leicester.
Hulme said that Bishop Martyn Snow initially did not believe Pinto was responsible for the threatening messages and that Snow “accused him of practising witchcraft,” in the words of the BBC report.
Bishop Snow disputed Hulme’s understanding of their conversation. “Following the BBC News Online article, we wish to make it very clear that Bishop Martyn did not accuse Jay Hulme of practising ‘witchcraft.’ Indeed, he is deeply disturbed that this accusation has been made,” said a statement by the Diocese of Leicester.
“He did question Mr. Hulme with regard to complaints that had been made against him—complaints which included (in Mr. Hulme’s words in the BBC interview) reference to conducting a seance in a church (something he later described as a ‘joke’) and reference to consulting a friend who is a tarot card reader.”
After an independent review, Snow was persuaded that Pinto was responsible for the messages that Hulme received. “Bishop Martyn did meet with Mr. Hulme and apologised for his original decision to not uphold the complaint,” another diocesan statement said. “He explained the further evidence that had come to light from an external organisation, which had given him irrefutable grounds to remove Ms. Pinto’s licence.”
Finally, in December 2022, Leicester Police arrested Pinto and confiscated her devices. “By the end of 2023, Venessa had been charged,” the BBC reported. “In May 2024 she pleaded guilty to stalking, involving serious distress or harm and was given an 18-month community order and banned from contacting Jay for a year.”
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
