Police in West Midlands, England, have paid Isabel Vaughan-Spruce £13,000 in acknowledgment that they treated her unjustly by twice arresting her for praying silently near an abortion clinic.
With the support of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK, Vaughan-Spruce had filed 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 a breach of her human rights both in respect to the arrests and the onerous bail conditions imposed on her.
Vaughan-Spruce was first arrested in November 2022 for silently praying inside a “buffer zone” near the abortion clinic. She was acquitted of all charges the following February, but only a few weeks later, she was arrested again for the same activity.
“Silent prayer is not a crime,” Vaughan-Spruce said in a statement following the settlement and payout. “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. Yet despite this victory, I am deeply concerned that this violation could be repeated at the hands of other police forces.”
The settlement comes just as the Home Office—the nation’s governmental department dealing with law enforcement—has announced that it is considering reviewing a draft guidance from December that stated, “Prayer within a Safe Access Zone should not automatically be seen as unlawful.”
According to news reports, the Labour Party, which won a large Parliamentary majority in July’s national elections, is set to fully implement buffer zones “imminently,” including prohibiting silent prayer in those areas.
“The fact that the government is reportedly set to name ‘silent prayer’ as a criminal offense, brazenly contrary to their commitment to international human rights law, exposes the crisis of free speech and thought in the UK today,” said Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK.
Photo: ADF UK