{"id":92555,"date":"2026-04-28T10:47:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/?p=92555"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:48:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:48:35","slug":"judge-dismisses-charges-against-scottish-grandmother-free-speech-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/fr\/news\/judge-dismisses-charges-against-scottish-grandmother-free-speech-victory","title":{"rendered":"Free speech victory: Judge dismisses charges against Scottish grandmother arrested for offering consensual conversation in \u2018buffer zone\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"92555\" class=\"elementor elementor-92555\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-dbcfa9 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"dbcfa9\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-30216c36\" data-id=\"30216c36\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4a46dada elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4a46dada\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul><li>Sheriff Stuart Reid delivered ruling at hearing in Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday morning, dismissing charges against Rose Docherty, 75<\/li><li>ADF International coordinated Mrs Docherty\u2019s legal defence<\/li><li>Christian grandmother arrested last September for holding a sign that read: <em>\u2018Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want\u2019<\/em> outside a Glasgow hospital<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4ae7724a elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-featured-image elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"4ae7724a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"theme-post-featured-image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"696\" src=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC_6940-3-1024x696.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-92561\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC_6940-3-1024x696.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC_6940-3-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC_6940-3-768x522.jpg 768w, https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC_6940-3-1536x1044.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC_6940-3-2048x1392.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8878357 elementor-widget elementor-widget-video\" data-id=\"8878357\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;video_type&quot;:&quot;hosted&quot;,&quot;controls&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"video.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-hosted-video elementor-wrapper elementor-open-inline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<video class=\"elementor-video\" src=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Rose-Victory-ADF-edited-1-1.mp4\" controls=\"\" preload=\"metadata\" controlsList=\"nodownload\"><\/video>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7efafe7b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7efafe7b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>GLASGOW (28 April 2026) \u2013 <\/strong>A judge dismissed criminal charges against a Glaswegian grandmother who was arrested for offering consensual conversation in a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d, in a significant victory for free speech yesterday.<\/p><p>Sheriff Stuart Reid\u2019s ruling, dismissing two charges of alleged \u201cinfluencing\u201d within a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d, against Christian grandmother Rose Docherty, 75, was delivered at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday morning.<\/p><p>Mrs Docherty was the first person to be criminally charged under Scotland\u2019s censorial 2024 \u201cbuffer zone\u201d law. Mrs Docherty\u2019s advocate Jamie McGowan was instructed by law firm Lindsays. Legal advocacy organisation ADF International coordinated her legal defence.<\/p><p>Mrs Docherty was <a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/en-gb\/news\/grandmother-arrested-glasgow-buffer-zone\">arrested<\/a> last September for peacefully offering to speak with people in the vicinity of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital\u00a0in Glasgow, in a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d, and holding a sign that read: \u201cCoercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want\u201d.<\/p><p>She did not approach anyone, did not speak about abortion, did not engage in any behaviour that was obstructing, harassing or intimidating and was not protesting.<\/p><p>Her censorial arrest sparked expressions of concern in the UK and around the world, including from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcos.org.uk\/Our-Work\/Publications\/Press-Releases\">Scottish Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference<\/a> and from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/us\/politics\/2025\/09\/28\/us-condemns-arrest-scottish-antiabortion-campaigner\/\">US State Department<\/a>, who described it as \u201canother egregious example of the tyrannical suppression of free speech happening across Europe\u201d.<\/p><p>Scotland\u2019s censorial 2024 \u201cbuffer zone\u201d law forbids the \u201cinfluencing\u201d of anyone\u202fseeking\u202fto access \u201cabortion services\u201d and is enforced within 200 metres of every hospital. It is similar to Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023, which introduced \u201cbuffer zones\u201d around all abortion facilities in England and Wales.<\/p><p>Yesterday\u2019s ruling followed a hearing on April 20, in which Mrs Docherty\u2019s legal counsel argued that the charges against Mrs Docherty violated her Article 10 right to freedom of expression.<\/p><p>Mrs Docherty\u2019s counsel noted that the charge against her was insufficiently clear and was not \u201cprescribed by law\u201d, since it failed to state or identify another person in the \u201cbuffer zone\u201d that was present for the purpose of accessing, providing or facilitating the provision of abortion services, as is required by the law.<\/p><p>During the hearing on April 20, the Crown admitted that the presence of another individual within the zone who was accessing, providing or facilitating the provision of abortion services was an essential ingredient of the offence and, remarkably, conceded that they were still making enquiries as to how many people, if any, were influenced by Rose\u2019s conduct within the zone.<\/p><p>Questioned by Sheriff Reid whether there was \u201cany evidential basis to advance\u201d a charge on the basis that Rose had influenced a person within the zone, the Procurator Fiscal responded, \u201cnot at the moment, but that might emerge after our further enquiries\u201d.<\/p><p>Sherriff Reid concluded yesterday that the Procurator Fiscal had \u201cfailed to disclose an offence known to the law of Scotland\u201d and dismissed the case<em>\u00a0pro loco et tempore,<\/em> meaning the matter can be brought back should prosecutors bring improved evidence and decide that a prosecution continues to be in the public interest.<\/p><p>Last September was the second time Mrs Docherty had been arrested for peacefully offering consensual conversation in a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d. Her first arrest for peaceful expression was on 19 February 2025, and the Procurator Fiscal later decided not to proceed with a prosecution in August.<\/p><p><strong>Reacting to the ruling, Rose<\/strong><strong> Docherty commented: <\/strong><\/p><p><em>\u201cThis verdict is a major victory for free speech in Scotland and the UK. It shows that peacefully offering consensual conversation on a public street, which is all I have ever done, can never be a crime.<\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cEven 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.<\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cMy case shows how \u2018buffer zones\u2019 are used by authorities to impose censorship. \u2018Buffer zone\u2019 legislation must be repealed in Scotland and across the UK to ensure it is not misused to target peaceful and lawful expression again in the future, as has now happened to me twice.<\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cThe resources used by the authorities to target me, a 75-year-old grandmother, for offering to speak with people, have been totally wasted. Authorities should focus on tackling real crime in Glasgow, not censoring a Catholic grandmother.\u201d<\/em><\/p><p><strong>Barrister and Legal Counsel for ADF International, Jeremiah Igunnubole commented:<\/strong><\/p><p><em>\u201cRose\u2019s free speech rights have been vindicated by the court in a significant victory for freedom of expression in the United Kingdom. <\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cThe prosecution of Rose has no place in a free and democratic society. No one should ever be criminalised for peaceful speech, least of all for making a peaceful and consensual offer to speak. It is bad enough to be prosecuted for exercising a fundamental right; it is far worse that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service brought these charges without conducting even the most basic investigative inquiries, such as establishing whether anyone had been criminally influenced by Rose\u2019s conduct within the \u2018buffer zone\u2019.<\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cThis prosecution is emblematic of the deepening free speech crisis in the UK. We call on the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, together with Police Scotland, to cease such targeted prosecutions and instead focus their resources on tackling the serious and growing crime problems Scotland faces.<\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cAbove all, this case has starkly exposed the flaws in these poorly drafted, censorial, and undemocratic \u2018buffer zone\u2019 laws. They have created confusion for police officers and delivered injustice to Rose and others who have endured the humiliation of arrest, imprisonment, and prosecution simply for seeking to love their neighbour and exercise their rights in the gentlest manner possible.<\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cParliament must act urgently to repeal these buffer zone laws and replace them with robust protections that genuinely strengthen freedom of expression.\u201d <\/em><\/p><p><strong>In a statement delivered outside court yesterday after the ruling, Mrs Docherty said:<\/strong><\/p><p><em>\u201cI was arrested, charged and prosecuted for nothing more than peacefully inviting consensual conversation in a public space that I was permitted to be in. When I was arrested, I was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police van and placed in a police cell for over two hours, without a chair to sit on. <\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cSimply for being available for the lonely, the afraid and the coerced, I have been treated like a violent criminal. But thankfully, today the charges have been dismissed. The judge ruled that the charges were irrelevant and that they were a breach of my Article 10 free speech rights. <\/em><\/p><p><em>\u201cThank you all for your support and prayers, thank you to ADF International and my entire legal team, who were brilliant. Nobody should be criminalised for consensual conversations and I\u2019m glad that that truth has been vindicated here today.\u201d<\/em><\/p><p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p><p>Following her arrest last September, Mrs Docherty was held in custody for several hours. She was refused a chair to sit on in her cell, despite making it known that she had a double hip replacement.<\/p><p>The architect of Scotland\u2019s 2024 \u201cbuffer zone\u201d law, Gillian Mackay MSP,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/en-gb\/news\/prayer-by-window-in-scotland-buffer-zone\">admitted<\/a>\u00a0on BBC Scotland that the vague prohibitions\u00a0in the legislation could\u00a0criminalise\u00a0someone for praying visibly from a window in their home within the zone, \u201cdepending on who\u2019s passing by the window\u201d.\u00a0<\/p><p>US Vice President JD Vance highlighted this law as a particular matter for concern in his Munich Security Conference speech in February last year.<\/p><p>In England, ADF International client <a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/en-gb\/news\/christian-woman-criminally-charged-for-silent-prayerpleads-not-guiltyin-first-hearing\">Isabel Vaughan-Spruce<\/a> faces trial in October for silently praying in the vicinity of an abortion facility. She is the first person to be criminally charged under Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023\u2014which introduced \u201cbuffer zones\u201d around all abortion facilities in England and Wales.<\/p><p>Watch footage of Mrs Docherty\u2019s arrest last year <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ADFIntl\/status\/1971818402776846390\">here.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-296b2845 elementor-widget-divider--view-line elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"296b2845\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-38e83954 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"38e83954\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Images for free use in print or online in relation to this story only<\/p><p><em>(First and second pictures: Rose Docherty and Legal Counsel for ADF International Jeremiah Igunnubole outside Glasgow Sheriff Court, following yesterday&rsquo;s ruling; Rose Docherty outside the court)<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-434694d8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-gallery\" data-id=\"434694d8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" 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hearing in Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday morning, dismissing charges against Rose Docherty, 75 ADF International coordinated Mrs Docherty\u2019s legal defence Christian grandmother arrested last September for holding a sign that read: \u2018Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want\u2019 outside a Glasgow hospital https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Rose-Victory-ADF-edited-1-1.mp4 GLASGOW (28 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":92561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1304,66],"class_list":["post-92555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-rose-docherty","tag-scotland"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Free speech victory: Judge dismisses charges against Scottish grandmother arrested for offering consensual conversation in \u2018buffer zone\u2019 - ADF International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A judge dismissed criminal charges against a Glaswegian grandmother who was arrested for offering consensual conversation in a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d, in a significant victory for free speech yesterday.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/fr\/news\/judge-dismisses-charges-against-scottish-grandmother-free-speech-victory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Free speech victory: Judge dismisses charges against Scottish grandmother arrested for 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