At the end of February, a judge stated that quoting the words of the Bible should ‘be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter’.
This came about during the trial of two street preachers – Mike Overd and Michael Stockwell – who were convicted of a public order offence in Bristol. The case against a third man was dismissed.
Prosecutor Ian Jackson also told the court that ‘although the words preached are included in a version of the Bible in 1611, this does not mean that they are incapable of amounting to a public order offence in 2016.’
