‘I should never have been investigated simply for the thoughts I held in my own mind’
By Bob Unruh
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce (Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom U.K.)
Only a week ago, U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote in an open letter that “Silent prayer, within itself, is not unlawful.”
And now prosecutors have agreed, dropping charges that had been filed against Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested last March for silent prayer near an abortion business.
A report in Decision Magazine said the announcement came six months after the police investigation had begun.
She was arrested in March, and the report explained a video of her conversation with police attracted much attention.
And that, they charged, “is the offense.”
Vaughn-Spruce is director of the U.K. March for Life.
She said in a statement released to Decision, “This isn’t 1984, but 2023. I should never have been arrested or investigated simply for the thoughts I held in my own mind.”
The confrontation actually was the second time she was arrested on the novel legal concept that people can be charged criminally for what they think.
She had been arrested on the same counts in 2022, then those were dropped last winter.