- Feb 5, 2002
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The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped the charges against the priest but said the charges could be reinstated.
A Catholic priest who faced criminal charges for praying for free speech outside an abortion facility after business hours is the latest to run afoul of a strict buffer zone law in the English city of Birmingham.
“I pray wherever I go, inside my head, for the people around me. How can it be a crime for a priest to pray?” Father Sean Gough, a priest of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, said in a Feb. 9 statement from the ADF UK legal group.
Father Gough stood near a closed abortion facility on Station Road in Birmingham with a sign that said “praying for free speech.” Police officers approached him and at first told him they did not believe he was breaking Birmingham’s public spaces protection order.
Officials invited him to an interview at the police station where they questioned him about his actions and criminally charged him with “intimidating service users” of the abortion facility. He faced a second charge related to an “unborn lives matter” sticker on his parked car.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
A Catholic priest who faced criminal charges for praying for free speech outside an abortion facility after business hours is the latest to run afoul of a strict buffer zone law in the English city of Birmingham.
“I pray wherever I go, inside my head, for the people around me. How can it be a crime for a priest to pray?” Father Sean Gough, a priest of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, said in a Feb. 9 statement from the ADF UK legal group.
Father Gough stood near a closed abortion facility on Station Road in Birmingham with a sign that said “praying for free speech.” Police officers approached him and at first told him they did not believe he was breaking Birmingham’s public spaces protection order.
Officials invited him to an interview at the police station where they questioned him about his actions and criminally charged him with “intimidating service users” of the abortion facility. He faced a second charge related to an “unborn lives matter” sticker on his parked car.
Continued below.
Priest Charged for Praying for Free Speech in U.K. Abortion Facility ‘Buffer Zone’
The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped the charges against the priest but said the charges could be reinstated.
