Woman arrested for silent prayer outside abortion centre blasts ‘two-tier policing’: ‘Treated me disgracefully!’

A Christian charity volunteer who won a £13,000 payout after she was arrested for praying silently outside an abortion clinic has accused UK officers of “two-tier policing”.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was first arrested in 2022 after she engaged in silent prayer in a “buffer zone”, imposed by local authorities around the BPAS Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham.

Following a second arrest in February 2023, police later dropped the charges, apologising to Vaughan-Spruce and declaring that “there will be no further investigation”.

Speaking to GB News, the activist admitted she was pleased with the payout and apology from the police after they had been “treating her disgracefully for so long”.

Vaughan-Spruce told host Jacob Rees-Mogg: “Clearly I’m delighted with the result, and that the police have taken some ownership.

“But it’s 20 months plus since this first started in December 2022 when I was first arrested, so it’s really gone on for so long now and it’s been quite a shock that something so Orwellian could still happen in the 21st century for such a prolonged period of time.”

Defending her right to silently protest outside of the abortion clinics, Vaughan-Spruce claimed that other individuals who had stopped near where she was stood were “not questioned by police” about their motives for being in the same area.

Vaughan-Spruce fumed: “The crazy thing is, when I’m silently praying on the street, there are other people on the street that have also stopped. Somebody might be having a cigarette, somebody might be waiting for a friend or waiting for a taxi.

“The police don’t go up to any of these people and ask them, are they praying or what are they thinking about?”

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Hitting out at the police, Vaughan-Spruce claimed that officers were keen to “enforce a spirit of division in the area”, despite locals “knowing she is a pro-lifer”.

She told GB News: “Some of the locals know that I’m pro-life and will contact the police, and the police have supported them. Pro-lifers are almost feeling like second-class citizens in that locality now because of the way they’ve been treated.

“I’m really glad are beginning to wake up to two-tier policing, because pro-lifers and other Christians have been at the brunt of this for a long time.”

Recalling how she has also been “spat at” and “assaulted” by locals who are pro-choice, Vaughan-Spruce accused the police of “turning a blind eye” to how pro-lifers are treated.

She explained: “We would be sworn at and assaulted by locals, not by people using the abortion centre, and the police would do nothing. They would turn a blind eye, at best.

“Otherwise, they would tell us if you don’t want to be assaulted, don’t come out of your house. That’s the kind of response we would be getting from the police.”

She continued: “And yet within five minutes of being there silently praying, the police are there, six of them, to tell me that my prayers are an offence.

“If that’s not two-tier policing, I don’t know what is.”