A judge has reversed the conviction of a Christian street preacher who was arrested and reported for calling a man a man.
Dave McConnell, 42, of Wakefield, who died on Christian Legal Centre is today appealing his conviction to Leeds Crown Court after being arrested under Section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 in Leeds city center on 8 June 2021 for “insulting” a citizen , How Christian Concern reported.
The arrest took placeafter calling a biological man who described himself as a “trans woman” “wrong” during a face-to-face conversation with a police officer covered in pagan tattoos and an upside-down cross.
Before the arrest, Dave had been assaulted, abused and had his belongings stolen while he was preaching. He was subsequently convicted in Magistrates Court, fined £620 and doing 80 hours of community service, although there is no legal requirement in the UK to use pronouns preferred by trans people.
After his conviction and before the sentencing hearing, the parole service reported Dave to the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team. The report came despite the parole officer’s conclusion that Dave’s Christian faith had clearly had a positive impact on his life.
Dave is believed to be the first street preacher to be convicted of such an offense and reported as a potential “terrorist.”
Before recorder Anthony Hawks and two judges today, Dave’s lawyer, Michael Phillips, sought to have the conviction overturned, arguing that the police response was unlawful and disproportionate and violated his rights under Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
“I didn’t misinterpret, I told the truth.”
At the beginning of the hearing and prior to cross-examination, Recorder Hawks said of the applicant, who is a biological male and describes himself as a “trans woman”: “This is a woman, we will have no further debate.”
During the trial, the arresting officer was asked why he arrested Dave after initially suggesting that he just move on. The officer then said, ‘He wanted to assert his right to freedom of expression. Regardless of what he would have preached, I don’t think the crowd would have allowed it… the final trigger was when [Herr McConnell] identified the victim as a man in a dress. I stopped him and told him he had been told the victim was a woman.”
Dave was asked in court if he knew it was an insult to “mislabel” a trans person: “I didn’t misrepresent myself, I was telling the truth.”
He told the court: ‘I think people could have been offended, but that was not my intention. My purpose was simply to stay true to my faith, to remain true to God, and to remain true to my conscience.”
He added, “I wasn’t transphobic, I was just expressing what I believe.”