A 78-year-old retired Baptist pastor in Northern Ireland now has a criminal record for preaching the Gospel on a Sunday morning.
District Judge Peter King convicted Clive Johnston at Coleraine Magistrates Court on May 7, finding him guilty of breaching Northern Ireland’s Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act.
His crime: holding a small open-air church service near Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, where abortion services are performed.
Johnston was fined a total of £450, roughly $614.
🚨NEW: Judge to rule on Clive Johnston’s case TOMORROW. 🇬🇧
The 78-year-old pastor was tried for sharing the gospel near a hospital where a “buffer zone” is in place.
He didn’t mention abortion, yet is accused of “influencing” decisions on the matter pic.twitter.com/JyXrrA0DBf
— Lois McLatchie Miller (@LoisMcLatch) May 6, 2026
He was preaching from John 3:16.
That is the verse millions of Christians know by heart, the one about God loving the world and giving His only begotten Son so believers may have everlasting life.
The judge found Johnston guilty of “influencing” inside the protected zone. Northern Ireland’s safe access zone law prohibits influencing, preventing or impeding access, or causing harassment, alarm, or distress to a “protected person” within 100 meters of facilities where abortions are performed.
Johnston is a former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland and a grandfather of seven. He told reporters after the ruling that this was a first-of-its-kind prosecution with chilling implications.
The Christian Institute, which is supporting Johnston, laid out the core facts of the case this way:
District Judge Peter King convicted retired Pastor Clive Johnston on May 7, 2026, and imposed fines totaling £450 for breaching abortion Safe Access Zones legislation. Johnston had been preaching from John 3:16 in the Safe Access Zone outside Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital.
The legal-support group said Johnston had no banners or placards and made no mention of abortion during his preaching. It described the case as a first-of-its-kind prosecution for an open-air church service under the buffer-zone law.
After the verdict, Johnston called it a dark day for Christian freedom and said the group had held a small open-air Sunday service near a hospital. He said they made no reference whatsoever to abortion.
Johnston said the buffer-zone law was so broad that holding a Sunday service had been found to be a criminal offence. He added that at 78 years old he found himself, for the first time, convicted of a crime.
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He added that at 78 years of age, he found himself convicted of a crime for the first time in his life.
Fox News added more context about the law and Johnston’s warning after the conviction:
Northern Ireland’s Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act prohibits influencing, preventing or impeding access, or causing harassment, alarm, or distress to a protected person within 100 meters of facilities where abortions are performed. Johnston was found guilty of influencing inside the protected zone and fined 450 pounds, about $614.
Johnston may be the first person prosecuted under the law for preaching a sermon that did not mention abortion, according to the Christian Institute. The case involved a July 7, 2024 sermon near Causeway Hospital in Coleraine.
Johnston told the outlet he was deeply saddened by the verdict and never imagined leaving a courtroom with a criminal conviction for preaching the Christian gospel. He said his overriding concern was what the conviction says about the state of fundamental freedoms in the nation.
He warned that the ruling effectively redefines peaceful Christian witness as unlawful influence. If reading the Bible, praying, and preaching on God’s love can be considered harmful because someone might overhear it in a certain area, he said, then a serious line has been crossed.
Johnston also posed the question every Christian in the West should be asking: “How can any public expression of Christian belief be safe if John 3:16 can be criminalized because of where it is spoken?”
Irish Pastor Clive Johnston responds after he is convicted and fined for preaching John 3:16 in what is known as an abortion 'Safe Access Zone.'
These Zones now exist across the UK, Canada and elsewhere.
Free speech was given to us by God, and governments cracking down on it… pic.twitter.com/XrHFrYennN
— Sassy Latina (@Virgini58967394) May 11, 2026
The U.S. State Department has previously indicated it was monitoring buffer-zone cases and other censorship-related developments in Europe.
These safe access zones now exist across the United Kingdom and in Canada.
The laws are written so broadly that they do not require the accused to have anything to do with the abortion debate at all.
A man preaching about God’s love on a Sunday can be hauled into court and convicted of “influencing” simply because he stood in the wrong 100 meters of pavement.
That is not public safety. It is the criminalization of Christianity in the public square.
Johnston’s case should be a warning to every believer and every free-speech advocate in the English-speaking world.
When a government can convict a 78-year-old grandfather for reading John 3:16 aloud on a Sunday morning, the law is no longer protecting anyone.
It is persecuting the faithful.
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