Roger Hutchinson (born 28 June 1952) is a former Northern Irish unionist politician and church minister who was a

Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs; ; ) are representatives elected by the voters to the Northern Ireland Assembly. About The Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 elected members – five from each of 18 constituencies, the boundaries o ...

(MLA) for East Antrim from

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Career

After attending Larne Technical College, Hutchinson became a religious minister. He also joined the

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...

. He moved into business in 1990. Hutchinson was elected to the

Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...

for the

UK Unionist Party The UK Unionist Party (UKUP) was a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008 that opposed the Good Friday Agreement. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney, formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party, to contest t ...

(UKUP) in East Antrim. With three of the other four UKUP members in the Assembly, he left in January 1999, disagreeing with leader Robert McCartney's policy of resigning from the Assembly should

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

become part of the power sharing executive. They formed the

Northern Ireland Unionist Party The Northern Ireland Unionist Party (NIUP) was a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland that campaigned against the Belfast Agreement. History It was formed in January 1999 as a splinter party from the UK Unionist Party (UKUP). Thi ...

(NIUP). At the end of 1999, Hutchinson was expelled from the NIUP for accepting seats on two statutory committees, against party policy. He then sat as an

independent Unionist Independent Unionist is a label sometimes used by candidates in British elections to indicate their support for British unionism. It is most popularly associated with candidates in elections for the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Such candi ...

. In November 2000, he joined the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

(DUP), and he was elected to

Newtownabbey Borough Council Newtownabbey Borough Council was a Local Authority in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, on the north shore of Belfast Lough just immediately north of Belfast. The Council merged with Antrim Borough Council in April 2015 under local governmen ...

for the DUP in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. He officially became part of the DUP Assembly group in April 2002. However, he resigned from the DUP before the 2003 Assembly election, in which he stood in East Antrim as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, failing to be elected. Hutchinson did not restand for his council seat in the 2005 elections. In January 2007 at Belfast Crown Court, he denied sexually assaulting a female council employee.

References

External links

The Northern Ireland Assembly
1952 births Living people Members of Newtownabbey Borough Council Democratic Unionist Party MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Independent members of the Northern Ireland Assembly UK Unionist Party MLAs Northern Ireland Unionist Party MLAs {{Northern-Ireland-MLA-stub