(Fr Sean Gough was charged with ‘intimidating service users’ | ADF)
Police charged a Catholic priest after he held up a sign with the words “praying for free speech” outside a closed abortion facility in Birmingham.
The Crown Prosecution Service later threw out the charges against Fr Sean Gough but warned him they could be revived at any moment.
Fr Gough, an assistant priest serving parishes in Wolverhampton and Staffordshire, was standing outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Services clinic in Station Road when invited to be interviewed at a police station on suspicion that he was infringing the terms of a Public Spaces Protection Order, or buffer zone, imposed around the centre in November by Birmingham City Council.
He was later charged with “intimidating service users” for holding up the sign and also in connection with a bumper sticker in his car which read “unborn lives matter”.
Following the dismissal of the charges, Fr Gough now intends to apply for a court verdict on whether his actions amounted to a criminal offence.
He said: “I pray wherever I go, inside my head, for the people around me. How can it be a crime for a priest to pray?
“I often pray in my head near the abortion facility, but at the time in question, I was praying for free speech, which is under severe pressure in our country today.
“At all times, I believed my actions to be lawful – freedom of expression, especially when peaceful, is protected in domestic and international law.
“It is deeply undemocratic to censor public streets, particularly those spaces where we know that many women have benefitted from peaceful offers of help about services available.”
He continued: “A large part of my ministry is working for ‘Rachel’s Vineyard,’ a charity that supports the healing of hundreds of women and men in the UK every year wounded by abortion. I don’t judge or condemn those who have had abortions – but volunteer my time to work for their healing.”
“It’s an issue that means a lot to me because my mum made a bold choice for life when I was a baby. I was conceived in the context of severe violence, and she found the grace and strength to fight for us both. So many people thought she should abort me, but by the grace of God, she didn’t, and we’re both so grateful for that today.”
So far, three other people have been arrested in connection with praying privately in the vicinity of abortion clinics.
Fr Gough’s case is unique because he was arrested for praying for free speech.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was recently searched and arrested by three police officers, as captured in a viral video, after she made clear that she was not “protesting,” but “might be” praying inside her head within the Birmingham censorship zone.
Similarly, father and army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was recently fined in Bournemouth after local authorities questioned him as to the “nature of his prayer,” within a censorship zone, to which he answered, “I’m praying for my son, who is deceased”.
Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, the organisation supporting Fr Gough, said that it was necessary to obtain a court verdict because “the process in and of itself has become the punishment for people like Father Sean, who face onerous legal battles simply for holding peaceful views in certain public spaces, against the will of authorities”
He said: “Nobody should be criminalised for peaceful activities like praying for the state of free speech in our country, or having a simple bumper sticker on their car that expresses a belief that ‘unborn lives matter’.
“This case demonstrates the far-reaching and illiberal consequences of so-called ‘buffer zones’. Fr Sean’s years of service to women in crisis pregnancies are testimony to the good of his character and intention.”
He added: “Fr Sean is understandably seeking clarity as to the lawfulness of his actions. Though charges were dropped after several weeks due to ‘insufficient evidence’, he has been warned that further evidence relating to the charges may soon be forthcoming, implying the entire gruelling process could soon restart from the beginning.
“This is a clear instance of the process becoming the punishment and creating a chilling effect on freedom of expression in the UK – a value that this government, incidentally, had promised to champion in their election manifesto.
“ADF UK remains committed to supporting Father Sean’s pursuit of a verdict. No one should fear prosecution for expressing peaceful beliefs, let alone on a small bumper sticker, nor through a sign that simply reads ‘praying for free speech’.”
Last week, the House of Lords backed the national roll out of buffer zones around abortion clinics in a move which could turn private and silent prayer into a thought crime.
Peers voted in favour of a move to criminalise activity that seeks to “influence” the decision of women booked in for abortions to go ahead with the procedure.
After a Report Stage debate, they also rejected an amendment tabled to the Public Order Bill to investigate the evidence that would justify so-called exclusion zones and the corresponding denial of the recognised human rights of association, conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
They supported Amendment 45, tabled by Conservative peer Baroness Sugg of Coldharbour, to make it a crime to influence “any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services”.
It also makes it a criminal offence to cause “harassment, alarm or distress to any person in connection with a decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services” within 150 metres of an abortion clinic.
The Bill is due to be ratified in the House of Commons, which successfully inserted a buffer zone clause which was replaced by Amendment 45.
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