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36-year-old English street preacher, Shaun O’Sullivan, is no longer facing prison or a hefty fine for a ‘hate crime’.

The former atheist was acquitted of “hate claims” last month by a Crown Court jury after a group of Muslims accused the preacher of hurting their feelings.

Aided by a zealous 999 report-a-hater handler, O’Sullivan was eventually charged with “religiously aggravated intentional harassment.”

Christian Concern said the family group, while visiting Swindon’s town centre, “felt as though O’Sullivan was targeting them because they were wearing hijabs.”

Case Without Evidence

They also alleged that the pastor remarked, “We love the Jews,” and that he had accused them of being “Palestinian lovers, and Jew haters.”

Recalling the six-day ‘hate crime’ hearing, which had a cost of £20,000, Christian Concern explained that the claims were unsubstantiated.

CCTV footage proved the claims were false.

“There was no audio or video evidence of the alleged remarks.”

“CCTV showed the family walking past in seconds, with no prolonged confrontation.”

“The only footage showed a brief encounter between the groups, which was mostly hidden by some town centre modern art sculptures,” Christian Concern added.

The compliant handler put the claims through anyway.

Despite there being “no supporting evidence, the “999 responder put a hate claim on, then categorised the incident as a hate crime.”

According to Christian Concern, the incident was magnified by “frequent pro-Palestine marches leading up to the 1st anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.”

O’Sullivan, who founded Awaken the Streets UK, after Christ turned his life of drugs and self-abuse around, appears to have been the one being targeted.

Former Heckler Turns Street Preacher

Writing an op-ed for Premier Christianity, O’Sullivan testified to his reasons for street preaching, saying that he comes from the streets.

“I would often see a street preacher talking about ‘repentance’ and ‘turning to God’.”

“Every week without fail, I would heckle him because he drove me crazy,” recounted O’Sullivan.

“I couldn’t bear hearing the gospel message. But the more I heard it, the more it stirred and convicted me inside.”

Eventually, Christ “got him off the drugs. He got married, had children, and I started Awaken International Ministries.”

Now he’s the one who gets heckled, spat on, and ridiculed.

“That’s part of the cost of following Jesus,” he wrote, adding, “and I accept that.”

What O’Sullivan recalls never expecting was a “real and sustained opposition coming from the authorities.”

He said he even has “evidence of individual officers ‘liking’ posts online about me being arrested.”

A Warning to Christians Everywhere

Although acquitted, O’Sullivan explained that the case was a complete waste of taxpayer money.

It should have been thrown out of court from the start, he concluded.

Responding to the outcome, Christian Legal Centre boss Andrea Williams declared the win a relief, then called the case against O’Sullivan a warning.

His arrest “exposed a dangerous trend threatening the fabric of British liberty,” Williams argued.

“If this can happen to a street preacher today, tomorrow it will be church leaders, journalists, and ordinary citizens, maybe like you.”

To this, Williams added, “This is not the Britain envisioned by Magna Carta (1215), the Bill of Rights (1689), or John Milton’s Areopagitica (1644).”

We’re supposed to have the freedom to disagree.

“Yet, now the peaceful proclamation of Christ, or even defending Israel, is treated as a public order threat.”

Diagnosing the cause, Williams said, “the rise of political Islam compounds and is at the centre of this crisis.”

This is lawfare, she implied, this “this not equality or diversity; it is censorship, and it’s becoming increasingly aggressive.”

Closely following the case, Australia’s Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA) welcomed the decision.

True to form, HRLA accurately summed up O’Sullivan’s ordeal and its implications.

Commenting on the “hate claims,” HRLA pointed out the “fragile state of free speech” under so-called ‘hate speech’ laws.

This “becomes all the more fragile when police powers are used to investigate or punish “offence” rather than genuine threats or violence.”

“Once complaints alone are enough to trigger criminal proceedings, even innocent and uncontroversial religious expression becomes dangerous.”

This trend has to be stopped, HRLA determined.

“Freedom of speech and religion,” they concluded, “must be actively guarded, or they will be quietly eroded.”

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Image via Christian Concern.