A MAN who hid behind a tree and prayed outside an abortion clinic for his dead son is facing trial accused of breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). 

Adam Smith-Connor, 51, said he “silently prayed” outside the BPAS Abortion Clinic in Bournemouth for his deceased son as a result of an abortion 22 years ago.

The clinic in Ophir Road is within a ‘buffer zone’ enforced by BCP Council, with the PSPO criminalising “protesting with respect to issues related to abortion services”.

Poole Magistrates Court heard on September 17, 2024, that the defendant prayed on three occasions outside the clinic on November 11, 2022, November 17, 2022, and November 24, 2022.

Smith-Connor, a childhood physiotherapist, emailed the council and police ahead of his vigils to ‘ensure he did not breach the order’.

On November 17, 2022, the defendant ‘silently prayed’ outside the clinic for around 90 minutes before police officers were called by clinic staff.

Body worn footage taken by the defendant shows his interaction with the police, with one officer saying: “I think you know you are sailing as close to the wind as you can without breaching the PSPO.”

Smith-Connor said he stood with his back to the clinic and behind a tree to ‘not give the impression that he was thinking disapprovingly’ towards service-users.

However, prosecutor, Kuljit Bhogal, said: “I am not being funny, Mr Smith Connor, you are a large gentlemen, you can be seen behind the tree.”

She also argued that on November 24, 2022, he was stood with another lady, and that both of them ‘could not be hidden behind the tree’.

On this day the defendant arrived at the area again to pray but was approached by council officers within minutes of his arrival.

The officers asked the defendant to leave the area due to beliefs that he was breaching the order but he refused.

He told the court he felt he had a “moral duty” to disobey instructions if it was unreasonable.

The court also heard that Smith-Connor said in emails to the council that he would be praying “for the children that will be dying at BPAS that day”.

It was said the defendant would drive 40 minutes to silently pray outside this clinic.

He said in a statement: “Nobody should be prosecuted for silent prayer.

“It is unfathomable that in an apparently free society, I am being criminally charged on the basis of my silent thoughts, in the privacy of my own mind.

“It’s not different than being tried for a thoughtcrime.” 

Smith-Connor, of Kingfisher Way in Southampton, denies failing to comply with a public spaces protection order.