“There is no place for Orwell’s ‘thought police’ in 21st century Britain”: An Interview with Isabel Vaughn-Spruce

Sep 3, 2024 by Dave Doveton

By Jonathon Van Maren, European Conservative.

Despite facing repeated arrests, Vaughn-Spruce is determined to continue standing up for women and their unborn children.

Isabel Vaughn-Spruce is a peaceful, law-abiding woman—but she has been arrested twice for praying silently near an abortion centre in Birmingham, England. In a rare bit of good news for freedom of speech, she has just received a payout of £13,000 from the West Midlands Police “in acknowledgement of her unjust treatment and the breach of her human rights” after she issued a claim alleging “two wrongful arrests and false imprisonments; assault and battery in relation to an intrusive search of her person; and for a breach of her human rights both in respect to the arrests, and to the onerous bail conditions imposed on her.”

Vaughn-Spruce’s case has attracted international attention and condemnation. She was arrested for the first time in November 2022, when she was confronted by two police officers while standing silently on the sidewalk. She told them that she was not protesting, but that “I might be praying in my head, but I’ve said nothing out loud.” The video of her arrest went viral.

In what Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK noted was widely considered to be “the first ‘thoughtcrime’ case prosecuted in 21st century Britain,” Vaughan-Spruce was arrested, searched thoroughly—ludicrously, they even went through her hair—criminally charged, and tried. This was despite the fact that she had never uttered a word and the crime she was alleged to have committed occurred entirely in her mind. Vaughan-Spruce, supported by ADF UK, was acquitted of the charges at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court due to the prosecution’s inability to present evidence.

Read here.