Silent prayer is now considered an Anti-Social Behaviour Crime in the United Kingdom.
Laying down the precedent, Dorset District Judge Orla Austin, slapped a criminal conviction on Afghanistan veteran, Adam Smith-Connor for breaching an abortion “safe space” with his silent prayers.
He was also fined more than £9,000 and given a two-year (toe the line or else) conditional discharge.
In her decision, Judge Austin stated she believed Smith-Connor acted “deliberately,” because he’d notified council by email about plans to quietly pray in the area.
Judge Austin moved forward with the ruling despite Smith-Connor not facing the British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinic, when he was praying.
Ruling against the father of two, Judge Auston declared Smith-Connor guilty of breaking the local council’s 2022 Public Spaces Protection Order, which lists prayer as one of its prohibitions.
4. The Activiites prohibited by the Order are:
4a. 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 counselling.
Smith-Connor was subsequently convicted under section 67 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014.
According to Dorset news, he was “praying for his son, who died from abortion 22 years ago.”
Commenting outside court, the veteran said he was “extremely saddened” by the ruling.
Judge Austin’s decision, he added, “marked a dark, and dangerous day for our nation.”
This is setting a legal precedent for policing thought crimes in England.
“I never imagined that the nation I love, that has been so good to me in the past, could turn on me for doing nothing more than offering up a prayer for my deceased son,” he continued.
“If the government can create thought crimes somewhere, it’s only a matter of time before they create them anywhere.”
If you show any dissent, Smith-Connor warned, “watch out.”
“God, and God alone, gives us the inalienable rights and freedoms,” he concluded.
“It’s the Government’s job to uphold these freedoms, not suppress them.”
Smith-Connor’s tragic experience with abortion informs his position on the issue.
He paid for his girlfriend to terminate the life of his son, Jacob, 22 years ago.
Smith-Connor told Catholic News Agency, the event was a “pivotal moment in his life.”
Wrestling with the grief of that decision drives his empathy for, and his desire to pray.
The 2022 Poole Council fiat used against Smith-Connor, was initiated after a survey suggested widespread support for a protest and prayer-free pregnancy termination zone.
Ironically for the babies being terminated, it was the Community safety boss, Councillor Bobbie Dove who outlawed pro-life prayers, and protests.
He said at the time, they tried to work out a compromise between the pro-life, and anti-life camps.
Those negotiations failed.
“Whilst we acknowledge the right of anyone to conduct a peaceful protest, we had to balance this against the distress caused,” the Poole councillor explained.
Defending his decision, Dove said, prayers and peaceful protests were “having a detrimental impact on those accessing medical services or doing their jobs.”
The Poole public safety officer then described his public protection order as a “balanced and proportionate decision, that will benefit the clinic’s users, its staff and the residents living on roads that surround the clinic.”
Dove’s pro-abortion protection order, banning prayer, was set to end next year.
However, new safe space laws for England and Wales, which come into effect on Halloween, may make Dove’s order permanent.
Created under Tory, Hindu PM, Rishi Sunak, this new law sets up 150 metre “medical” protection zones around abortion clinics.
By strong implication, it will be illegal to talk to, offer to pray for, or even look at a woman considering abortion within the exclusion zone.
Any person suspected of “hindering the facilitation of abortion” will be fined, and like Adam Smith-Connor, face criminal charges.
Appalled by Smith-Connor’s legal defeat, the UK branch of Alliance Defending Freedom exclaimed, “This is the first known conviction of a “thoughtcrime” in modern British history.
“We’re examining the possibility of appeal.”
In a separate post on X, ADF international added, “Thoughtcrimes belong in 1984 – not 2024.”
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