UK Police Compensate Christian Woman £13,000 for Arrests Over Silent Prayer

22.08.2024

The West Midlands Police have agreed to pay £13,000 (approximately $16,800) in compensation to Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a Christian volunteer who faced arrest twice for silently praying near an abortion clinic in Birmingham, England.

This settlement coincides with the U.K. government's reported plans to intensify restrictions on silent prayer near abortion facilities by potentially criminalising it under new nationwide “buffer zone” legislation.

Vaughan-Spruce, who serves as the director of March for Life UK, was first detained in December 2022 for praying silently within a designated Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) zone outside a closed abortion clinic. The PSPO in question prohibits “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users,” a definition local authorities extended to include silent prayer.

By February 2023, Vaughan-Spruce was cleared of all charges related to her December arrest. However, she was taken into custody again in March 2023 for the same activity.

“Silent prayer is not a crime. No one should be arrested for the thoughts they hold in their minds — yet this happened to me twice at the hands of the West Midlands Police, who explicitly told me that ‘prayer is an offence,’” Vaughan-Spruce said in a statement released by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK, the legal group representing her.

The payment from West Midlands Police serves as an acknowledgment of the wrongful treatment Vaughan-Spruce endured and the violation of her human rights.

ADF UK revealed that Vaughan-Spruce had lodged a claim against the police for “two wrongful arrests and false imprisonments; assault and battery in relation to an intrusive search of her person; and for a breach of her human rights, both concerning the arrests and the stringent bail conditions imposed on her.”

Despite this outcome, there are ongoing concerns about the potential for future infringements on religious freedom and freedom of thought. The U.K. government is preparing to implement nationwide “buffer zones” around abortion clinics, which may lead to further arrests of individuals engaged in silent prayer or those offering assistance to women contemplating abortion.

Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, highlighted the broader implications: “The fact that the government is reportedly set to classify ‘silent prayer’ as a criminal offence, in stark contrast to their commitment to international human rights law, reveals a significant crisis of free speech and thought in the U.K. today.”

Lord David Frost, a senior Conservative peer and former cabinet minister, also voiced concern, as reported by ADF: “It is astounding that individuals have been arrested for thought crime in contemporary Britain. I am very pleased that Ms. Vaughan-Spruce has been compensated for her unjust arrest for this so-called offence.”