FRENCH PREACHER CHARGES DROPPED

Mr Frank Marcaille, the French preacher we wrote about in March, has been told that the Metropolitan Police have dropped all charges against him for preaching in Hammersmith last November.  He was charged under Section 5(1)(a) of the Public Order Act 1986, with “Threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress.”  Apparently he criticised the influence of the Devil in his Bible preaching, and waved his arms.

In a letter to Mr Terence Scarborough, a member of Christian Voice, Mr Anthony Wills, the Hammersmith Borough Commander, says:

“In this instance, following arrest, the case was not proceeded with but I am entirely satisfied that the arrest was both correct and consistent with our duties to maintain the Queen’s peace.”

FRIGHTENED

Mr Wills, who apparently has had a large number of letters from Christian Voice members and supporters, also said, “When one person’s actions impinge on the well‑being of others to such an extent that they become frightened, we must act.”

The trouble is, the Bible says, “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.”  If it is our Christian duty to preach the Gospel at all, then putting people in fear of God and of eternal damnation is a necessary way of fulfilling that duty.  In that way, we exercise what the Human Rights people describe as our right, or as we should say, our historic Christian freedom, to express our religious beliefs.  Mr Scarborough, in a reply to Commander Wills, says, “The Christian message, that has been freely proclaimed in our streets until recent times, is that we are all sinners and on our way to eternal judgment in hell.  The implications of that are frightening, and rightly so.”

PATTERN EMERGING

Mr Malcolm Nowell, of Halifax‑based Finn Gledhill Solicitors, who represented Frank Marcaille, said that there appears to be a pattern emerging of arrest and charge with charges later dropped.  The reality is that Christian preachers are arrested, handcuffed and harassed by the police, taken to a police station where fingerprints, DNA and photographs are taken, questioned, locked up, charged, released on bail, made to appear in Court once, or twice, only to find the charges subsequently dropped.  That cannot be right, whatever the Hammersmith Borough Commander says.

Mr Nowell was the acting solicitor for Alison Redmond‑Bate when Lord Justice Sedley ruled that preaching the Gospel, even in a provocative manner, was entirely lawful, and a police office was not acting in the execution of his duty when he asked her to stop.  That case was the subject of the Christian Voice briefing paper, Free to Preach the Gospel.

CHARGES DROPPED BEFORE TRIAL

Mr Nowell told Christian Voice that in every case in which a client of his has been charged with a public order offence, charges have been dropped “in the public interest” before coming to trial, or, on the rare occasion when a case comes to trial, magistrates have found the preacher not guilty.  No case on a public order offence has yet gone far enough for the Court of Appeal to set down parameters for the police to observe.

The pattern of arrest and harassment is distressing for our brothers and sisters, and the distress is only partly mollified by the success Mr Nowell’s firm is having in securing damages from the police for false imprisonment, wrongful arrest and unlawful detention.  We trust Frank Marcaille is considering such an action, for he was understandably concerned at the prospect of a fine and criminal conviction.  Mr Marcaille said, “I believe I should be free in Britain to criticise the Devil.  I am free now.  It’s a miracle.  I glorify God for what He has done.  The case is collapsed.  I love people.  I am trying to help others on the streets.  I believe I was right to preach the Gospel publicly, and I should be free to do so.”

“NOISE” CASE HEARING IN JUNE

In a separate case, Jennifer Bate (Alison’s mother) and Gillian Johnson, who are represented by Mr Nowell, are summoned to appear before Horseferry Road Magistrates to answer charges that they “made a noise” contrary to City of Westminster Byelaw for Good Rule and Government No2.  The case, reported by Christian Voice in December 2002, is now due to be heard on Thursday 19th June 2003.

PRAY: Give thanks for the faithful witness of Frank Marcaille and others, and pray that Almighty God will grant them wisdom and courage in the face of police harassment and provocation.  May the Gospel be heard, and the forces of darkness be given no corner where the light does not shine.  Pray that God will expose public servants who are driven by hatred of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into obstruction of the truth!