A grandmother has been arrested and charged after holding a sign outside a hospital.
Rose Docherty, 75, was led into the back of a police van on Glasgow’s Hardgate Road, outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, on Wednesday.
She was holding a sign which read: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
Ms Docherty was later released on bail under a law which imposes so-called “buffer zones” outside Scottish abortion clinics.
That came after she was held in custody for several hours.
The protester was refused a chair in her cell, despite telling police she had a double hip replacement.
Rose Docherty, 75, was led into the back of a police van on Glasgow’s Hardgate Road on Wednesday
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ADF INTERNATIONAL
Her bail conditions prevent her from attending an area marked out to be even wider than the initial 200m “buffer zone” around the hospital.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Officers attended and a 75-year-old woman was arrested and charged in connection with a breach of the Safe Access Zone legislation.”
After her arrest, Ms Docherty said: “Everybody has the right to engage in consensual conversation.
“I held my sign with love and compassion, inviting anyone who wants to chat, to do so – and stood peacefully, not approaching anyone.
“I should not be treated as a criminal for inviting people to chat with me – lending a listening ear.
“Conversation is not forbidden on the streets of Glasgow. And yet, this is the second time I have been arrested for doing just that.”
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‘I should not be treated as a criminal for inviting people to chat with me,’ Ms Docherty said
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ADF INTERNATIONAL
Lorcan Price, the legal counsel for Christian legal advocacy group ADF International, added: “It’s deeply concerning that Scottish policing resources are being ploughed into arresting and prosecuting a peaceful grandmother offering to speak to people in public, rather than focusing on the problems caused by real crime in Glasgow.
“This is not a case about harassment, intimidation or violent protest = this is simply a grandmother, who held a sign offering to speak to anyone who would like to engage.”
Ms Docherty became the first person to be arrested under the buffer zone law following a similar incident in February.
Police at the time offered a formal warning requiring her to admit wrongdoing and refrain from similar actions in future.
But Ms Docherty, supported by ADF International, rejected the warning.
In August, Scotland’s Procurator Fiscal dropped the case and withdrew the warning.
Buffer zone laws had prompted JD Vance to warn that free speech was ‘in retreat’ in Europe earlier this year
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REUTERSBuffer zone laws had prompted US Vice President JD Vance to warn that free speech was “in retreat” in Europe earlier this year.
He pointed to an incident in Bournemouth where physiotherapist Adam Smith-Connor was convicted of breaching a safe zone after praying outside an abortion centre.
Mr Vance said: “I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person.
“But no. This last October, [then] just a few months ago, the Scottish Government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.”
Vance said the Scottish Government had urged people to report their fellow citizens for “thought crime”.