A woman who was arrested twice for silently praying in her head outside an abortion clinic has won an apology and a payout from police after essentially being persecuted for a thought crime.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for silently praying inside a ‘buffer zone’ near an abortion clinic in Birmingham.
The Christian charity volunteer was searched, including through her hair, arrested, charged and prosecuted despite having done essentially nothing but engaging in silent thinking and not even verbally expressing an opinion.
Despite being acquitted in court, Vaughan-Spruce was subsequently arrested again weeks later for precisely the same thing.
“You’ve said you’re engaging in prayer, which is the offence,” an officer told her.
After a six month investigation, police dropped all charges and issued an apology to Vaughan-Spruce and she has now received a £13,000 payout as a result.
“Silent prayer is not a crime,” Vaughan-Spruce told the Telegraph. “Nobody should be arrested merely for the thoughts they have in their heads – yet this happened to me twice at the hands of the West Midlands Police, who explicitly told me that ‘prayer is an offence’.”
“There is no place for Orwell’s Thought Police in 21st-century Britain, and thanks to legal support I received from ADF UK, I’m delighted that the settlement that I have received today acknowledges that,” she added.
Despite the apology, Vaughan-Spruce said that she is concerned the same fate could befall others who pray silently outside abortion clinics.
That threat is set to increase after the new Labour government indicated it would scrap previous guidance that allowed silent prayer within ‘safe access zones’ where activists would be able to hand out leaflets and engage in conversations with women considering abortions.
Dame Diana Johnson, the new policing minister, stated, “We specifically voted against proposals to allow silent prayer and consensual communication in safe access zones.”
Former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Frost said, “It is incredible that people have been arrested for thought crime in modern Britain. I am very glad Ms Vaughan-Spruce has received compensation for her unjust arrest for this so-called offence.”
“But if a recent report is correct that the Government is considering formally criminalising silent prayer outside abortion centres, then there will be further such cases, and then not just freedom of speech but freedom of thought will be under threat. It is hard to imagine a more absurd and dangerous situation.”
Meanwhile, the UK government is still busy emptying overcrowded prisons of actual criminals in order to incarcerate boomers for posting spicy Facebook memes in response to the recent riots.
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If they ever found out what I actually think about those gobshites who are forcing these laws I would get life.
Wait until the UK institutes pre-crime. They knew what you were thinking of saying…..
In the United Kaliphate of israel,
Nazism has been honed to a fine blade for Satan!
It’s a shame White people chewed off their balls for him years ago and do nothing but lick the bottoms of his children!
its bolshevism not nazism. get it correct.