A street preacher has been awarded £4,250 in damages after a judge
ruled it was wrong of police to arrest and handcuff him after he spoke
out against homosexuality.
Anthony Rollins, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, was preaching
in Birmingham city centre in June 2008 when a member of the public, John
Edwards, took offence at comments he made describing homosexual conduct
as morally wrong.
According to the Christian Institute, which backed Mr Rollins’ case,
police arrived on the scene after receiving a call from Mr Edwards and
PC Adrian Bill proceeded to handcuff Mr Rollins without any further
inquiry.
Birmingham County Court ruled on Wednesday that PC Bill had committed
assault and battery against Mr Rollins by handcuffing him
unnecessarily.
Judge Lance Ashworth QC said in his ruling on Wednesday that the arrest demonstrated a “lack of thoughtfulness”.
PC Bill, the judge ruled, had made the arrest “as a matter of routine
without any thought being given to Mr Rollins’ Convention Rights”,
which pertain to free speech and religious liberty.
After his arrest, Mr Rollins was taken by PC Bill to the station
where he was held for three hours but never questioned for his account
of events.
He was charged with breaching Section 5 of the Public Order Act but the charges were dropped before the case came to trial.
Mr Rollins decided to sue West Midlands Police after a complaint he
made to the Independent Police Complaints Commission about his treatment
was rejected.
His claims of wrongful arrest, unlawful imprisonment, assault and
battery, and the infringement of his human rights were upheld by the
court on Wednesday.
Testifying in court, Mr Rollins said he had felt “shocked and very humiliated” when the police marched him away in handcuffs.
He said that when he had tried to speak to PC Bill after his arrest he was told to “shut it”.
Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute, said: “Street preachers may
not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is part of our Christian heritage.
Most people just walk on by and ignore it. The police have no business
arresting Christians for quoting the Bible.
“Whether you agree with Mr Rollins’ beliefs or not, surely we all
value free speech. Christians are tired of being put on trial for their
beliefs. There is clearly a problem with the Public Order Act and it
needs fixing.”
Section 5 of the Public Order Act makes it an offence to use
“threatening, abusive or insulting” words or behaviour in a way that
could alarm or distress another person.
The law has led to the arrest of several Christians over comments they made expressing their religious beliefs.
Last year, Christian hotel owners Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were
brought before the courts after they “insulted” a Muslim guest during a
conversation in which they expressed their concerns about the status of
Islamic women.
They were eventually found not guilty of a religiously
aggravated public order offence.
Earlier in the year, Christian street preacher Dale Mcalpine was
arrested after telling a community police officer that he believed
homosexuality to be a sin.
The charges were later dropped.
The Christian Institute is calling upon the Government to repeal the
word “insulting” from Section 5 of the Public Order Act when the Freedom
Bill passes through Parliament in the coming months.
Writing on the ConservativeHome website this week, Mr Judge said
removing “insulting” from the law would not interfere with the police’s
ability to deal with genuine public disorder.
“Free speech is a bedrock principle of any true democracy. That
freedom is worthless unless it encompasses the dissenting opinion, the
awkward belief, the uncomfortable truth,” he said.
“This freedom doesn’t just protect the speaker. It ensures that you, I
and everyone has the freedom to hear, the freedom to listen, the
freedom to weigh up competing ideas for ourselves.
“If anyone feels insulted and distressed by that, sorry but that’s the price of living in a free society.”
SIC: CT/UK