Adam Smith-Connor, devout Christian, family man and army veteran who served for twenty years in the army reserves, including a tour in Afghanistan – a true patriot – was forced to appear in Poole Magistrates on Thursday, 16th November for refusing to pay a £100 fine to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council. His penalty was for praying silently almost exactly a year earlier (24.11.2022) outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) abortion clinic at the end of Ophir Road in Bournemouth.

Euphemistically called an abortion clinic – the Webster dictionary definition of abortion is a miscarriage – the baby waste disposal unit exists within what is ironically called a ‘Safezone’ – for this is a most dangerous place for unborn babies and their mothers.

On 28 June 2022 the clinic received a damning report from the Care and Quality Commission (CQC). In 2001 Ophir BPAS clinic was forced to close temporarily, when Sharon Bagg suffered a heart attack and brain damage following the termination of a 14-week pregnancy. A detailed report into the death revealed that the anaesthetist involved in the procedure was "relatively unqualified". In June 2022, the CQC completed 8,527 killings, of which 6,863 were EMA by telemedicine (remote consultation and supply of abortifacient medicines to take at home).

This house of horrors is one of a staggering 370+ clinics in Britain where annually over 200,000 babies are killed in their mother’s womb, or sometimes left to die after an unsuccessful abortion. Since 1967, when killing babies was legalised, Britain has culled 15% of its population, or 10 million of its citizens. This is national genocide.

Britain has culled 15% of its population, or 10 million of its citizens. This is national suicide.

Quoting his defence team, the Alliance Defending Freedom (AFD-UK), Adam is being tried for allegedly breaking a local buffer zone imposed by local council authorities in Bournemouth. Within this buffer zone, everyone is prohibited from “expressing approval or disapproval of abortion” – even by praying, “crossing oneself”, or handing out leaflets about help services available to women facing a crisis pregnancy.

Justice denied

One year later, on Thursday 16th November 2023, supported by ADF-UK, Adam’s defence planned to ask the court to dismiss the prosecution on the basis of unfairness. Adam was assured by two police officers in November 2022 that praying silently in that location was legal. And yet ten days later two community police officers employed by BCP Council reported him for silently praying, resulting in his being issued on the 13th December with a fixed penalty notice of £100, which he has since refused to pay.

A commonsense free zone

The BPAS clinic is situated within a Safe or Buffer zone which embraces over 100 private dwellings in a highlighted map area which is subject to what are euphemistically called PSPOs or Public Space Protection Orders. These give authorised BCP officers and Dorset Police the ability to enforce the prohibition of seven activities posted on small and inconspicuous signs or panels surrounding the area from Monday – Friday between 7am and 7pm.

Regulations Nos 1, 2 & 6 forbid respectively: -

• Protesting, namely engaging in an act of approval/disapproval or attempted act of approval/disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means. This includes but is not limited to graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counselling.
• Interfering, or attempting to interfere, whether verbally or physically, with a service user or member of staff of the BPAS clinic.
• Holding vigils where members audibly pray, recite scripture, genuflect, sprinkle holy water on the ground or cross themselves if they perceive a service-user is passing by.

In this context prayer is associated with praying with a service user. Adam was not engaged with either counselling or praying with either a service user or a member of the clinic; nor was he audibly praying. He prayed with his back to the facility to avoid any impression of approaching or engaging any women entering or leaving the facility. He was not protesting, interfering or obviously engaged in a religious act. It was only when the police asked Adam what he was doing that they discovered he was praying, and there is no mention on the panels about either thinking or silent prayer.

Kangaroo court

Eight months after being issued with the fine, Adam was summoned for a preliminary hearing on August 9th, following which he was ordered to appear at Poole Magistrates on Thursday 16th November. Yet of a similar case where Isabel Vaughan Spruce had been cleared twice for praying silently outside Birmingham abortion clinic and the former home Secretary Suella Braverman recently told the police that silent prayer was not a crime, his defence counsel, the Alliance Defending Freedom -UK (ADF-UK), argued that the case should be dropped.

He prayed with his back to the facility to avoid any impression of approaching or engaging any women entering or leaving the facility.

But after nearly three hours of confusion in the court, the judge postponed the judgement and rescheduled it for 18th and 19th January 2024, where they will bring in a more “qualified” judge. After the court appearance, Adam’s defence, Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, reported:

“It’s disappointing that this abuse of fundamental freedoms has been allowed to drag on, with today’s hearing now postponed to January. While the judge referred to the complexities of the case as the reason for postponing, we must remember that the facts of Adam’s case are really very simple—he is being criminally charged for his silent prayer. It is most unfortunate that this lengthy and gruelling process is continuing to impact Adam’s life, for only having prayed in his head.”

Though common sense tells us that Adam will be declared innocent on January 19th, BCP Council want to punish him with an abuse of the judicial system which allows them to mentally, emotionally and financially harass Adam and damage the quality of his family life. This is not only religious persecution but is designed to deter anyone else from challenging wicked people in high places.

Please Listen to Adam’s response to the outcome of the day’s proceedings. Indeed, ADF raised concerns about the council’s prosecutorial independence, noting in particular that the initial decision not to prosecute Adam was reversed only after pressure from the relevant abortion provider (BPAS).

And who is paying the barristers to prosecute Adam? It is you and me, through our council tax. BCP Council has so far run up legal fees – charged to the public purse – in excess of £25k to prosecute an offence carrying a maximum fine of £1k. This comes despite a recent warning from the Council in August that, “tough budget decisions are needed” in order to avoid bankruptcy, with council chief executive Graham Farrant pointing to a £45m gap in its £300m annual budget, alongside depleted reserves (see here and here).

Kafkaesque zone

Many would look at Adam’s plight and think that it does not affect them. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Orwellian sounding ‘Safe zones’ now surround over 375 abortion clinics and hospitals. But these zones are now spreading to town centres. How soon before they engulf churches?

residents living near to the clinic can sometimes hear women crying in the post operative rooms

One of the more grotesque arguments presented by BCP Council and their legal teams are that anyone who is attempting to reach out to women entering the clinic with practical help and an alternative choice to killing their babies is damaging the quality of life of those living within the buffer zone. Leaving aside the damage done to the quality of life of the unborn babies and their mothers', many of whom suffer, physically, mentally, emotionally and socially from having an abortion, residents living near to the clinic can sometimes hear women crying in the post operative rooms.

The PSPOs are affixed to posts, declaring the demarcated area to be a SAFE zone. Presumably those living outside it are not safe! Below we see PC Castle attempting to force me to read the sign to him. How many people bother to stop and read these signs which - being raised high up - are hardly noticeable. After I had written to the police complaining of PC 1399’s behaviour, I received an apology from Inspector Graham Fern Graham, informing me that “PC Castle was no longer working for Dorset Police”.

The signs read more like small print - giving some form of legality to the fact that residents or anyone entering the zone are abandoning their fundamental and inalienable human rights of freedom of conscience, thought, religion, expression, choice and assembly. How does that improve the quality of life?

One would have thought that if one were in danger of being fined ruinous sums of money or threats of prison, such as signs warning ramblers near military ranges of unexploded shells, that the signs would have been prominently displayed with instantly understandable text.

But this is not so, for to do so would in and of itself cause alarm and distress, the very things that are illegal.

The aim of the zone is to outlaw any subjective feelings of distress, confusion or hurt, no matter what depravity and abomination might be witnessed.

Without actually using red flags and causing alarm, the signs are warning anyone entering the zone that any negative or positive comment, discussion or thought about abortion is a criminal offence.

The aim of the zone is to outlaw any subjective feelings of distress, confusion or hurt, no matter what depravity and abomination might be witnessed. The zones are a trial run in keeping the citizens of Britain in a comatose state, feeling peaceful – even happy- whilst mass murder, violence, rape and robbery are happening all around them.

Welcome to the brave new world of Aldous Huxley and Tony Blair, Keir Starmer, David Cameron and ‘Peppa Pig’ Boris Johnson’s ‘Animal farm’.