Verdict due in trial of woman accused of breaching abortion clinic 'buffer zone'
Campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt was on trial at Poole Magistrates' Court last month
The verdict is to be given in the trial of a woman at the centre of a free speech controversy who is accused of breaching a "buffer zone" outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic.
Anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt was on trial at Poole Magistrates' Court last month accused of breaching the Public Spaces Protection Order on two days in March 2023, with the verdict set to be given on Friday.
The case involved the 64-year-old holding a sign saying "Here to talk, if you want" and has caught the attention of the US State Department and US vice president JD Vance.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labour (DRL), a bureau within the US Department of State, issued a statement on X earlier this week which said: "US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
"However, as Vice President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.
"While recently in the UK, DRL senior adviser Sam Samson met with Livia Tossici-Bolt, who faces criminal charges for offering conversation within a legally prohibited 'buffer zone' at an abortion clinic.
"We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression."
The Telegraph also quoted a source "familiar with trade negotiations" between the UK and US as saying that there should be "no free trade without free speech".
However Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that free speech had not been part of tariff negotiations with the US.
Tossici-Bolt, a retired medical scientist living in Bournemouth, Dorset, said: "I am grateful to the US State Department for taking note of my case.
"Great Britain is supposed to be a free country, yet I've been dragged through court merely for offering consensual conversation. I'm thankful to ADF International for supporting my legal defence.
"Peaceful expression is a fundamental right - no-one should be criminalised for harmless offers to converse."
She added: "It is tragic to see that the increase of censorship in this country has made the US feel it has to remind us of our shared values and basic civil liberties.
"I'm grateful to the US administration for prioritising the preservation and promotion of freedom of expression and for engaging in robust diplomacy to that end.
"It deeply saddens me that the UK is seen as an international embarrassment when it comes to free speech.
"My case, involving only a mere invitation to speak, is but one example of the extreme and undeniable state of censorship in Great Britain today.
"It is important that the Government actually does respect freedom of expression, as it claims to."
Lorcan Price, legal counsel for ADF International, said: "We are used to seeing this kind of diplomacy happen with countries that have authoritarian and dictatorial regimes. It is sobering to realise the censorship crisis in the UK has become so extreme that it is now necessary here too.
"Livia's criminal prosecution for merely offering consensual conversation highlights in a particular way that free speech is now becoming a major point of contention between the US and UK.
"If the UK continues to abandon free speech, it's now clear there will be no 'special relationship'. We are grateful to the US for engaging in diplomacy to promote the fundamental right of freedom of expression in this country.
"But we deeply regret that our own politicians' instinct is to censor speech and even prayers they object to. We hope this story and Livia's shocking prosecution instigate a return to valuing free speech in Great Britain."
Rayo Premium