A Christian evangelist has been found not guilty of a public order offence after he handed out leaflets criticising Tesco's decision to donate £30,000 to the 2012 London/World Pride parade.
Raj Bhachoo was arrested, kept in a police
cell for hours, and charged with “threatening, abusive or insulting
words or behaviour” under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 following a complaint by the manageress during a leafleting exercise outside the Tesco store in Gravesend, Kent in January 2012.
The case was due to be heard by Dartford Magistrates on 24 September 2012.
However, on reviewing the evidence and recent legal decisions including that
involving Sandown Road Free Presbyterian Church, the prosecuting barrister offered no evidence.
The magistrates duly dismissed the case.
Just a week ago, Mr Michael Phillips (the solicitor who represented Raj Bhachoo in this case) represented two Christians from the Abort67 group, seeing all charges against them thrown out by magistrates in Brighton.
Last February, Michael Overd faced a trial
in Taunton after two homosexuals objected to his preaching. Mr Overd was also acquited.
In September 2006, Stephen Green of Christian Voice was arrested, locked in the
cells for four hours and charged under the same Section 5 by the South
Wales Police Minorities Support Unit for handing out evangelistic
leaflets at the homosexual Cardiff Mardi Gras. At the subsequent
hearing, all charges were dropped.
Stephen Green said today: "Christians just keep winning these Section
5 freedom of speech cases. It is not against the law to preach against
sodomy, to tell the public the facts about homosexual lifestyles, nor to
display graphic images of the effects of abortion. These things might
upset people, but they are not threatening, they are not abusive, they
are not insulting and they are not against the law.
We actually need no change in the law, but we do need police forces
and the Crown Prosecution Service to provide training to officers and
prosecutors on the law and on their duty to protect people exercising
their freedom of expression.
In the abortion case, the police officer who attended admitted in
court that the only training he had ever had on the implications of
freedom of speech was ten years ago."
Tesco's decision to openly support the sodomite cause is proving yet more costly ... .
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