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The United Kingdom, which has been cracking down on speech for years, dealt free speech another blow on Thursday when a district judge found Clive Johnston, a retired Northern Irish pastor, guilty of preaching John 3:16 in public.
The 78-year-old was convicted of two charges under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zone) Act (Northern Ireland) for holding an open-air service near Causeway Hospital in Coleraine in 2024. This law makes it a crime to do anything that could be seen as “influencing” or “preventing or impeding” people seeking abortion services within 100 meters of a clinic. Eight of these “buffer zones” have been created in Northern Ireland.
However, Johnston did not mention abortion in his sermon. It was also a Sunday, which meant the sexual health clinic was not open for scheduled abortion appointments. Body camera footage shows Johnston speaking about his journey toward faith, playing the ukulele, and preaching John 3:16 (“for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son”) before being interrupted by a police officer. The officer tells Johnston that “this is a safe access zone,” and he must stop preaching or he “may be removed and liable to prosecution.”
Clive Johnston now has a criminal record and has been fined 450 pounds (about $610). The grandfather of seven has never been in trouble with the police before and is expected to appeal the conviction.
After being found guilty, Clive Johnston told the Christian Institute, which is providing him with legal assistance, that it was a “dark day for Christian freedom.”
“We held a small, open air Sunday service near a hospital. We made no reference whatsoever to the issue of abortion. And yet the buffer zones law is so broad that holding a Sunday service has been found to be a criminal offense,” Johnston said.
“If someone is out there causing trouble, stirring up violence, harassing or verbally attacking people, then, absolutely, go ahead and prosecute them. But I wasn’t doing any of those things as the police video shows and as everyone involved in this case accepts,” he added.
Johnston is reportedly the first person to be convicted of violating the Safe Access Zones Act without mentioning abortion at all. However, he is not the first person to face prosecution for religious expression near hospitals in Britain. Rose Docherty, a 75-year-old Glaswegian grandmother, was detained, arrested, charged, and released on bail last year for carrying a placard outside a hospital that said: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” Similarly, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was criminally charged in England earlier this year for praying silently near an abortion clinic.
Johnston’s conviction sets a precedent for what kind of speech is allowed in buffer zones. It also has wide-ranging implications for free speech more broadly. In Britain, peaceful religious expression can now be criminalized not just for what is actually said, but for views that the listener thinks the speaker might hold.
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