Clive Johnston was found guilty earlier this month of conducting a protest outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine and failing to comply with a direction to leave the zone back in July 2024.
The judge told the 78-year-old, of Melmount Road in Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, he had “tested the law to the point where he broke the law” by organising a small gathering outside the medical facility in contravention of legislation introduced in Northern Ireland back in 2022 which created eight 100m-150m buffer zones around hospitals and abortion clinics.
Yesterday, The Christian Institute (TCI) confirmed an appeal has been filed to challenge the ruling which marked the first time anyone has been prosecuted under the law for preaching a sermon that did not mention abortion.
Mr Johnston’s lawyers intend to argue that the conviction represents “a disproportionate interference with fundamental rights” enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and UK’S Human Rights Act — including freedom of speech, religion, and peaceful assembly.
The case sparked an international backlash.
A US State Department spokesman told The Daily Telegraph that the Trump administration “is still monitoring many buffer zone cases in the UK, as well as other acts of censorship throughout Europe”.
“The UK’S persecution of silent prayer represents not only an egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty, but also a concerning departure from the shared values that ought to underpin US-UK relations,” they added.
Key White House figures — including the president himself and vice president JD Vance — have expressed concerns about freedom of speech being in “retreat” across the UK and Europe which they said is contributing to “civilisational erasure”.
TCI’S Simon Calvert warned the ruling represents “a serious threat” to freedom across the UK and described the consequences as “dangerous”.
“This case was never about harassment or intimidation — nobody has alleged Clive Johnston engaged in anything close to this form of behaviour,” he said. “It is about whether the state can criminalise the peaceful expression of Christian faith in a public place under abortion buffer zones laws.
“The implications of this dangerous ruling reach far beyond one individual pastor in Northern Ireland. If public authorities can prosecute someone for reading the Bible and preaching on God’s love, then fundamental freedoms are at risk.”
Mr Johnston said the ruling sets “a deeply troubling precedent” that allows expressions of faith to be punished under “a modern blasphemy law”.
“I was not protesting abortion. I was peacefully preaching the Gospel, reading from the Bible, and pointing people to the hope found in Jesus Christ,” he added.
“If this conviction is allowed to stand, it will signal that basic Christian witness and public expressions of faith can be criminalised simply because they take place in the wrong location.
“Instead of policing harmful behaviour like harassment and violence, the buffer zones law has come to function as a modern blasphemy law — allowing the state to ban the peaceful and loving expression of Christian faith.
“That should concern every person who values freedom of religion and freedom of expression, regardless of their views on abortion.”
Prominent American evangelicals have also expressed outrage at the ruling.
North Carolina preacher Franklin Graham, the son of the late Billy Graham, warned that “religious freedoms are being threatened” in the UK, US, Canada and around the world.
Coleraine Magistrates’ Court previously heard that at least one protected person had attended the hospital on the Sunday that Mr Johnston delivered a sermon focusing on John 3:16.
Judge Peter King said the decision to preach “was motivated by two reasons: to test the legislation and to influence anyone who heard him towards the Bible and the Christian message generally”.
He said the defendant deliberately placed himself within a safe access zone — knowing he was at risk of breaching the law — without checking if abortion services were being provided on the day in question.
After being convicted and fined £450, Mr Johnston insisted the open-air service had been “short and brief ” as he warned “the buffer zone legislation is so broad that holding a Sunday service has been found to be a criminal offence”.
“At 78 years, I find myself for the first time convicted of a crime,” he added.
Conservative MP Jacob Rees-mogg said “it is extraordinary that in a Christian country, the police think it is an offence to preach the word of God outside a hospital”.
Meanwhile, DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the ruling marked “a very sad day” for Northern Ireland.