[3] His PhD thesis was titled "Human rights and natural law : an analysis of the consensus gentium and its implications for bioethics".
[4] Fleming was a high-profile Anglo-Catholic priest in the Anglican Church of Australia's Adelaide diocese.
Fleming was a weekly columnist of The Advertiser in Adelaide and presented radio programs for a number of years.
[11] From 7 October 2014[12] and the end of September 2016, Fleming pursued a high profile, but unsuccessful, defamation action against The Advertiser and the Sunday Mail in the Supreme Court of South Australia regarding reports of alleged sexual misconduct as an Anglican priest.
On 29 September 2016 the appeal was unanimously dismissed when the court found no errors of law were made in the earlier judgement.
[13] Fleming applied for special leave to appeal with the High Court of Australia, the application was refused because two judges stated that it did "not raise a question of general importance.
None of the applicant's proposed appeal grounds enjoys sufficient prospects of success to warrant a grant of special leave.
"[14][15] It was decreed under canon law on 9 February 2017 by Philip Marshall, vicar general of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide, that Fleming was to immediately cease all forms of ministry.