A Catholic campaigner joined other pro-life leaders in criticising a court after a man was convicted of breaching a “buffer zone” around an abortion clinic.
In November 2022 Adam Smith-Connor prayed silently outside an abortion clinic in a “buffer zone” area established by Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council, covering several streets in Bournemouth where expressions of pro-life activity are illegal. He was sentenced last week to a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £9,000 in prosecution costs.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a co-director of pro-life group March For Life UK, told The Tablet: “I am immensely concerned that a judge has branded Adam Smith-Connor a criminal for silently praying in a public space for his son who was aborted.”
The former Conservative MP Miriam Cates said Smith-Connor had been convicted of “thought crime”.
“This isn’t 1984, but 2024 – nobody should be on trial for the mere thoughts they hold in their mind,” she said. “Buffer zone regulations are disproportionately wide, leaving innocent people vulnerable to prosecution merely for offering help, or simply holding their own beliefs.”
Despite providing video evidence of his interaction with the police in which they assured him that his silent prayers were not breaching the Public Space Protection Order setting out the buffer zone, Smith-Connor attended a three-day trial in September and was found guilty on 16 October.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce added: “If silent prayer becomes a crime then we’ve moved into the realm of ‘thought policing’ as well as discriminating against those with religious beliefs. This should be a concern to each and every person of goodwill regardless of their faith or even which side of the abortion debate they stand on.”
Responding to the ruling, Adam Smith-Connor said: “Today, the court has decided that certain thoughts – silent thoughts – can be illegal in the United Kingdom. That cannot be right. All I did was pray to God, in the privacy of my own mind – and yet I stand convicted as a criminal.”
Prayer “isn’t a crime” and should not “be outlawed”, she said.
Miriam Cates also condemned the council for spending over £90,000 on legal fees despite its precarious financial position as “outrageous”.
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