A retired pastor who was cautioned and later prosecuted for allegedly breaching an abortion buffer zone one in Northern Ireland has pleaded not guilty and challenged the case against him.
Clive Johnston was cautioned after delivering an out of doors sermon to a small group of individuals in an abortion buffer zone near Causeway Hospital, Coleraine, on 7 July 2024. The sermon was based on John 3:16 and didn’t mention or discuss abortion in any way.
Johnston is accused of “intentionally influencing a protected person, or being reckless as as to whether his actions had that effect”.
Johnston’s leading defence barrister, Aaron Thompson, told the court that the case may raise human rights and devolution issues that “may require satellite litigation to resolve”.
Thompson said the cases represents “a tension between the buffer zone laws and Mr Johnston’s freedom of conscience and spiritual expression as enshrined in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights”.
Johnston is instructing John Larkin KC, Northern Ireland’s former Attorney General, and that Johnston may seek an intervention from the High Court within the case.
Larkin has been tasked with determining if buffer zones laws effectively prohibits public acts of worship inside the designated zones and in the event that they do, whether this is able to represent a breach of human rights law.
Johnston can be being supported by The Christian Institute, whose Deputy Director, Simon Calvert accused the police of being “religiously illiterate” after mistaking a worship service for a protest.
Calvert said, “Should a law designed to stop abortion protests be used to criminalise gospel preaching? … It’s just not reasonable or rational to suggest preaching the Gospel, with no reference to abortion, is a protest against abortion.”
Continuing, Calvert described the circumstances of the service, “This was an open-air service with a few dozen people in attendance, on a patch of grass, separated from Causeway Hospital by a motorway with Clive leading the singing of well-known hymns on a ukalele.”
He added, “There is a crucial principle at stake. If the Gospel will be banned on this public place, where else can it’s banned?”
