Topic: Police drop ‘excessive’ bail conditions for pro-life charity worker – Christian News 16 April 2023 – Faithwheel.com
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Police drop ‘excessive’ bail conditions for pro-life charity worker
Staff writer 16 April 2023 | 6:32 AM
West Midlands Police have relaxed bail conditions for a pro-life charity worker arrested last month.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for praying silently outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham on 6 March.
The clinic has a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in place preventing prayer or other pro-life activity within 150m.
Her arrest came just weeks after Birmingham Magistrates’ Court acquitted her of all charges for praying silently in an abortion clinic PSPO zone last December.
After her second arrest, the bail conditions for her release included prohibiting her from entering an area “considerably larger” than the PSPO zone, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF UK), which is defending her.
The area covered by her bail conditions included a local church where she leads a group of volunteers in prayer.
According to ADF UK, police said the conditions were necessary to prevent Vaughan-Spruce from “committing an offence whilst on bail” or from “interfering with witnesses or otherwise obstructing the course of justice”.
ADF UK called the conditions, which were set by the police for three months, “onerous” and “excessive”.
They submitted a legal challenge arguing that they were “unlawful and effected in this case for an improper purpose”.
The bail conditions have now been lifted by West Midlands Police.
Welcoming the decision, Ms Vaughan-Spruce said, “I’m glad to see some measure of justice restored to proceedings that had imposed excessive burdens on my everyday life.
“Nobody should be criminalised for the thoughts that they hold in their head.”
She continued, “By imposing such arduous and far-reaching restrictions as my bail conditions, police officers ensured that the process became my punishment, even before I have been tried following this second arrest. The bail conditions had a serious negative impact on my life.
“The prayer group which I lead had decided to meet to pray outside of the ‘buffer zone’ to avoid any confusion during Lent. Yet even though they took this precaution, I was forbidden from joining them for our month of prayer meetings because of the restrictions of my bail conditions.”
Responding to the news, ADF UK said that the police were “behaving as judge, jury and executioner”.
“Whilst we welcome West Midlands Police’s decision to relax Isabel’s excessive bail conditions, the cavalier manner in which her basic rights were restricted is deeply concerning,” said Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK.
“In Britain, you are innocent until proven guilty, which means the citizens are entitled to demand that any curtailment of their civil liberties are proven to be strictly necessary and proportionate – criteria that West Midlands Police failed to meet in the initial bail conditions imposed on Isabel.”
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