A man in the UK has been convicted of the crime of breaching a “safe zone” established around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, Dorset, by silently praying for his aborted son.
On November 24, 2022, Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinic in Bournemouth praying for his son Jacob, who died from abortion 22 years ago, according to a report from Borehamwood and Elstree Times.
Smith-Connor’s prayers took place in a designated area where “protests, harassment and vigils either in favour or or against abortion services” were prohibited in October 2022, Borehamwood and Elstree Times reported.
Despite Smith-Connor’s assertion that he was simply praying, District Judge Orla Austin ruled on October 16 that his actions constituted a “deliberate” violation of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO).
The 51-year-old father of two was sentenced to a two-year conditional discharge and fined £9,000 in prosecution costs following the legal proceedings brought by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council.
According to an October 16 news release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK, “A conditional discharge is a type of conviction that means Smith-Connor will only be sentenced if he is convicted of any future offences in the next two years.”
During his proceedings, the news release from ADF UK shared, Smith-Connor was interrogated on “the nature of his prayers.”
“Today, the court has decided that certain thoughts — silent thoughts — can be illegal in the United Kingdom,” Smith-Connor said in the news release from ADF UK. “That cannot be right.”
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING🚨🚨🚨
— ADF UK (@ADF_UK) October 16, 2024
British courts have found Adam guilty for praying to God, silently in his mind, for 3 minutes in an abortion "buffer zone".
This is the first known conviction of a "thoughtcrime" in modern British history. pic.twitter.com/l352IEJ58A
Smith-Connor, a resident of Southampton, Hampshire, had notified the council of his intentions for the silent prayer vigil via email the day before, a practice he had previously followed, according to the report from UK local news.
“All I did was pray to God, in the privacy of my own mind – and yet I stand convicted as a criminal?” Smith-Connor stated in the ADF UK report.
He added:
I served for 20 years in the army reserves, including a tour in Afghanistan, to protect the fundamental freedoms that this country is built upon. I continue that spirit of service as a health care professional and church volunteer. It troubles me greatly to see our freedoms eroded to the extent that thoughtcrimes are now being prosecuted in the UK.
“This is a legal turning point of immense proportions,” said Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK. “A man has been convicted today because of the content of his thoughts — his prayers to God — on the public streets of England.”
“We can hardly sink any lower in our neglect of basic fundamental freedoms of free speech and thought,” Igunnubole added.
Notably, ADF UK shared that the BCP council spent over £90,000 in legal fees to prosecute Smith-Connor, despite “battling bankruptcy warnings and being forced to cut ‘all non-essential spending.’” Smith-Connor’s offense has a maximum penalty of £1,000.
“This isn’t 1984, but 2024,” politician Miriam Cates told ADF UK. “It’s outrageous that the local council are pouring taxpayer funding into prosecuting a thoughtcrime, at a time where resources are stretched thin.”