A Christian woman has been convicted of breaching an abortion clinic buffer zone after holding a sign offering help.
Dr Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, was found guilty at Poole Magistrates’ Court. She was sentenced to a conditional discharge and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £20,000 in full by 31 May. A fundraising campaign is underway to help her cover the costs.
She said her conviction was "a dark day for Great Britain".
“I was not protesting and did not harass or obstruct anyone," she said.
"All I did was offer consensual conversation in a public place, as is my basic right, and yet the court found me guilty."
Dr Tossici-Bolt was prosecuted after refusing to pay a fixed penalty notice for holding a sign in an abortion clinic buffer zone in Bournemouth that said “Here to talk, if you want”.
The buffer zone bans acts of approval and disapproval towards abortion. Dr Tossici-Bolt argued that her sign merely offered consensual conversations with women accessing the facility and did not express approval or disapproval towards abortion, and was therefore not in breach of the buffer zone regulations.
She was convicted despite an unusual intervention by the US State Department in which it suggested that free speech was important to US-UK relations.
She is weighing up her legal options after her conviction today.
"Freedom of expression is in a state of crisis in the UK. What has happened to this country? The US State Department was right to be concerned by this case as it has serious implications for the entire Western world," she said.
“I remain committed to fighting for free speech, not only for my own sake but for all my fellow citizens. If we allow this precedent of censorship to stand, nobody’s right to freely express themselves is secure."
Her lawyer, Lorcán Price, of the Alliance Defending Freedom UK (ADF), said, “Everyone who cares about free speech should care about ‘buffer zones’. A Christian woman has been convicted merely for offering to chat on a public street in Britain. This ruling should show all reasonable people that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, abortion facility ‘buffer zones’ are incompatible with a free society."
The judge presiding over her case recently convicted another pro-lifer, Adam Smith-Connor, whose appeal hearing will be heard in July.
He was also prosecuted by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council, which according to The Telegraph newspaper, has spent almost £150,000 on the cases despite being cash-strapped.
