Charges against Father Sean Gough and charity volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce for failure to comply with Public Spaces Protection Orders have been dropped.

Father Sean Gough and Ms Vaughan-Spruce were both accused of “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users” outside abortion clinics.

The cases were dropped separately on Thursday after both were judged not to meet the “full code test” for prosecutors, which assesses whether prosecutions are in the public interest and if there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.

After the hearing, Father Gough stated, “It’s wrong for authorities to censor parts of the street from prayer – even silent prayer – and from peacefully having conversations and sharing information that could be of great help to women who want an alternative choice to abortion…

"I was charged for praying for freedom of speech and for an old bumper sticker on my car that read ‘unborn lives matter.”

He went on to say, “If the government imposes censorship zones around every abortion facility in the country, as they are considering doing with the Public Order Bill currently under discussion, who knows how many more people are going to stand trial, how many people are going to be put in prison for offering help, for praying in their mind?"

Similarly, Ms Vaughan-Spruce said she had been “arrested and criminalised simply for my private thoughts on a public street."

She added that, “those who are trying to offer alternatives are being branded as criminals and told that their behaviour is anti-social.”

“What is profoundly anti-social is that in 2023 there are still certain members of our society who are having their most fundamental rights taken from them – the right to life itself.”

Earlier this year, MPs backed plans to enforce buffer zones around clinics in England and Wales, meaning "harassing, obstructing or interfering" with any woman attending an abortion clinic would become a criminal offence.