Scottish Court Defends Christian’s Freedom of Speech

A Glasgow court has dismissed all charges against Rose Docherty, a 75-year-old grandmother who was criminally prosecuted for standing quietly outside a hospital with a pro-life sign.

Amidst the crackdown on freedom of expression throughout the UK, this ruling is a timely affirmation of that freedom’s existence and the right of citizens to exercise it.

Docherty, a Christian grandmother from Glasgow, had done nothing more than hold a sign reading “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” She never approached anyone, never initiated a discussion about abortion, and offered conversation only to those who sought it out. And yet, she became the first person ever charged under Scotland’s 2024 buffer zone law, which prohibits “influencing” within 200 meters of abortion facilities.

Sheriff Stuart Reid at Glasgow Sheriff Court found that prosecutors had “failed to disclose an offence known to the law of Scotland,” tossing out both charges of “influencing” within a designated buffer zone. This is a stunning rebuke to a prosecution that many legal observers had questioned from the start.

The joy outside the courthouse was palpable, with Docherty calling the ruling a watershed moment.

“This verdict is a major victory for free speech in Scotland and the UK,” she said. “It shows that peacefully offering consensual conversation on a public street, which is all I have ever done, can never be a crime.”

She also reflected on the toll the ordeal had taken: “Even though the verdict was a victory, the process in this case became a form of punishment for me. I was arrested last September and have faced seven months of criminal proceedings, merely for exercising my free speech rights. This should never happen in a free society.”

Despite the hardship she faced, such as being handcuffed, placed in a police van, and held in a cell for over two hours without a chair, even after she informed officers of her double hip replacement surgery, Docherty’s resolve never wavered.

Her legal team, coordinated by ADF International, successfully argued that the charges were insufficiently defined and constituted a violation of her Article 10 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Prosecutors ultimately admitted they had no evidence that Docherty had influenced anyone.

ADF International barrister Jeremiah Igunnubole celebrated the outcome as a vindication not just for Docherty, but for free expression broadly.

“Rose’s free speech rights have been vindicated by the court in a significant victory for freedom of expression in the United Kingdom,” he said. “No one should ever be criminalized for peaceful speech, least of all for making a peaceful and consensual offer to speak.”

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children echoed that sentiment, calling the result “a stunning victory for freedom of speech and common sense in Scotland.”

The case had attracted international attention well before its resolution, with the U.S. State Department having weighed in on Docherty’s arrest, describing it as “another egregious example of the tyrannical suppression of free speech happening across Europe.” This wasn’t her first brush with prosecution as an earlier case stemming from a February 2025 arrest for the same peaceful activity was dropped by prosecutors before this one went to court.

Today, however, is unambiguously a day to celebrate. Rose Docherty stood silently on a public street, offering a kind word to anyone who wanted one, and a court has confirmed that it isn’t, and never was, a crime.

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