After attending Larne Technical College, Hutchinson became a religious minister.
[citation needed] Hutchinson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 for the UK Unionist Party (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 become part of the power sharing executive.
[1] At the end of 1999, Hutchinson was expelled from the NIUP for accepting seats on two statutory committees, against party policy.
In January 2007 at Belfast Crown Court, he denied sexually assaulting a female council employee.