UPDATE: £7,500 PROSECUTION COSTS FOR HOLDING BIBLE VERSE SIGN
On 15 January 2025, the Crown Court rejected Stephen Green's appeals and confirmed his guilty verdict. The Christian preacher will now have to pay more than £7,500 in fines and prosecution costs for silently holding a Bible verse.
As reported by OIDAC, Christian preacher Stephen Green has been found guilty of breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) for allegedly protesting against abortion within a 'buffer zone' in west London on 6 February 2023. Mr Green was quietly holding a sign with a Bible verse from Psalm 139:13 written on it, which reads: "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb".
Mr Green was first issued with a fixed penalty notice of £100 in March 2023. After failing to pay the fixed penalty, the case went to Uxbridge Magistrates' Court, where Mr Green was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £2,426 in costs.
The Welsh preacher said he was unwilling to pay on principle and appealed against the decision. Finally, on 15 January 2025, Isleworth Crown Court dismissed Mr Green's appeal and ordered him to pay the original fine and all legal costs. The total amount to be paid by Mr Green is now over £7,500.
Abortion providers have celebrated this decision, arguing that it ensures that those seeking abortion services will not be 'harassed and intimidated', despite the fact that Mr Green was not speaking to anyone, but simply quietly holding a sign with a Bible verse. The practical effect of this decision - and of the increasingly restrictive 'buffer zone' laws - is that there are certain public areas where Christian practice (even silent prayer) is forbidden.
In Mr Green's words, “people are right to be concerned about the buffer zone legislation. To bar Christian witnesses and to control what people can say in an area is dracionian an anti-Christian”.
Source: walesonline.co.uk, ealingtoday.co.uk, bbc.com, christianconcern.com
Image: X (Rob Harries)