Pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has lodged a formal complaint against West Midlands Police, accusing the force of attempting to curtail her right to free speech and silent prayer. Her case, like that of Livia Tossici-Bolt, has been backed by US Congress.
Ms Vaughan-Spruce lodged a formal complaint against West Midlands Police, accusing the force of harassment as she exercises her right to pray silently outside an abortion facility in Birmingham.
After two “wrongful” arrests for praying silently within a so-called “buffer zone”, Ms Vaughan-Spruce previously received compensation and an apology from West Midlands Police.
However, Ms Vaughan-Spruce was confronted again by police and told to leave the public area near the abortion facility as her “mere presence”, she was told, may constitute “harassment, alarm and distress”.
Now, after meeting with officials from the US House Judiciary Committee, which has taken an interest in her case, Ms Vaughan-Spruce has lodged her formal complaint.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms Vaughan-Spruce said: “Silent prayer should never be a crime. I was cleared of all wrongdoing and awarded a settlement from the police… And yet they continue to target and harass me merely for silently praying. That’s why I’ve submitted a complaint today…
“The State Department is right to be concerned about free speech in the UK, it is in serious threat here. In fact, we now have literal ‘thought police’ in this country and people are being criminalised for the thoughts in the privacy of their minds.”
President Donald Trump’s State Department has also been “monitoring” the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt who was found guilty last Friday of breaching a buffer zone in Bournemouth after she stood near an abortion facility with a sign that read, “Here to talk, if you want to.”
As President Trump’s global tariffs were implemented this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was warned that there might be no future trade deal with the US if pro-life activists and Christians continue to be arrested and charged.
Earlier this year, Vice-President JD Vance spoke at the Munich Security Conference where he raised the issue of free speech, citing the case of Adam Smith-Connor who, like Ms Vaughan-Spruce, was arrested for praying silently inside a buffer zone – in his case, praying for his dead son who was aborted.
“I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person”, Vance said. “But no… The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
Last year, buffer zones of 150m came into force in England and Wales, and up to 200m in Scotland. MSP Gillian Mackay, who authored the Scottish buffer zones law, recently admitted that it might also be illegal to pray at home inside a buffer zone “depending on who passes the window”.
In Northern Ireland, where buffer zones are also in force, a Christian woman named Claire Brennan was prosecuted, found guilty and fined for kneeling in prayer inside a buffer zone.
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