A British army veteran who served in Afghanistan was found guilty today of praying silently near an abortion clinic in England. 

Adam Smith-Connor breached a Public Spaces Protection Order by this action, according to the ruling at Poole Magistrates Court in the town of Poole near Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The court gave Smith-Connor a conditional discharge, meaning he would be sentenced only if convicted of future offenses within the next two years. But the court also ordered the father of two children to pay prosecution costs amounting to £9,000. ADF International stated that Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council spent £90,000 prosecuting the former soldier for praying, which carried a maximum penalty of £1,000. This is crazy and whoever authorised the expenditure should be sacked.

“Today, the court has decided that certain thoughts — silent thoughts — can be illegal in the United Kingdom,” Smith-Connor said after the court ruling. “That cannot be right. All I did was pray to God, in the privacy of my own mind, and yet I stand convicted as a criminal?”

The court found Smith-Connor guilty of an act of “disapproval of abortion,” though he was only thinking about his son, who had been aborted many years before, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.

Smith-Connor had slightly bowed his head and clasped his hands in prayer on a public green in a buffer zone near the abortion facility in Orphir Road, Bournemouth in November 2022. During a confrontation with police officers that he recorded, they asked him, “What is the nature of your prayer?” 

The buffer zone had been previously legalized under a Public Spaces Protection Order enforced on streets near the abortion clinic. The intent of the buffer zone had been to stop pro-life beliefs being expressed near the facility, including offering help or prayers to women in crisis pregnancies, according to a press statement by ADF International. 

Defense attorneys argued that Smith-Connor’s prayerful thoughts, beliefs and opinions were not a crime, especially as he stood peacefully and silently on a public street. He stood behind a tree, spoke to no one, and had his back to the facility. 

Fortunately, Biblical prophecy shows us that the return of Jesus to put an end to this nonsense is near.