(Just The News) Freedom of religion in the United Kingdom does not necessarily extend to private thoughts depending on location, under a “shock ruling” from the Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court, according to a defendant’s lawyers.
Alliance Defending Freedom International said client Adam Smith-Connor, a British Army Reserves veteran who served in Afghanistan, received a “conditional discharge” under which he’ll be sentenced “if he is convicted of any future offenses in the next two years.” The court ordered him to pay £9,000 in prosecution costs.
Smith-Connor prayed for a few minutes outside an abortion clinic in November 2022 when officers questioned him about “the nature of your prayer” because the location was subject to a “public spaces protection order” that ADF International said covers several streets in the town. The interaction was captured on video.
They asked him to elaborate after Smith-Connor said he was praying for his son, and he clarified his son is “deceased.” The officers apologized for his loss but said they had to “go along with the guidelines,” which forbids “acts of disapproval” near an abortion clinic.
The prohibitions are described as: “Protesting, namely engaging in an act of approval/disapproval or attempted act of approval/disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means. This includes but is not limited to graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counseling.”
Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council charged him, but since he refused to pay a £100 fine, Smith-Connor went on trial. He testified that his son was aborted in Leeds 24 years ago, though at a different clinic, according to the U.K.’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.
The court ruled Smith-Connor committed “disapproval of abortion” because officers saw his head “slightly bowed and his hands … clasped,” but his lawyers said he did not “outwardly manifest his prayer by kneeling, speaking, or holding any signs,” going so far as to stand behind a tree and not engage with anyone.
