JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: SPUC is disturbed by Belfast court ruling against respected pro-life campaigner

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

SPUC is disturbed by Belfast court ruling against respected pro-life campaigner

Bernadette Smyth

SPUC is disturbed by today's ruling by a Belfast court against a respected pro-life campaigner. Bernadette Smyth of Precious Life has been found guilty of harrassment against Dawn Purvis, the director of the Marie Stopes abortion centre in Belfast.

Liam Gibson, SPUC's Northern Ireland development officer, told the media earlier today:

"I find it very hard to believe that Bernadette Smyth, a highly-respected and long-serving pro-life leader, is guilty of criminal conduct. It would be quite wrong for her forthright opposition to abortion to be misconstrued as harrassment of women considering abortion or of abortion centre staff. SPUC supports her legal team's decision to appeal today's ruling.

At present we do not have an official transcript of the judge's remarks. Once an official transcript is available, we will be seeking a legal opinion on the judgment. If the media's reports of the judge's remarks are accurate, it appears that the ruling may represent a disturbing curtailment of pro-lifers' freedom of speech and other civil freedoms. There is an unbroken tradition in both Northern Ireland and Great Britain of pro-life vigils outside abortion centres being conducted lawfully and peaceably."

According to the BBC, District Judge Chris Holmes told Belfast Magistrates' Court:

"I want to make it absolutely clear that I do not feel it's appropriate for anyone to be stopped outside this clinic in any form, shape or fashion and questioned either to their identity, why they are going in there and being forced to involve themselves in conversation at times when they are almost certainly going to be stressed and very possibly distressed."

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.