A UK street preacher who was arrested on Easter Sunday 2020 for allegedly breaching Covid regulations has been exonerated by the courts after a two-year legal battle.

Andrew Sathiyavan was arrested on Sutton High Street, London, during lockdown after being told by officers that his preaching was “unacceptable”, “non-essential” and “causing anti-social behaviour”.

Mr Sathiyavan was detained in a police cell for four hours and issued with a Covid fine, which was subsequently upheld by a Deputy District judge.

However, Isleworth Crown Court has now overturned the arrest.

“We accepted that, on that particular day [the most important in the Christian calendar] the focus of Mr Sathiyavan’s ministry was the homeless, the poor and drug addicts, many of whom will not have ready access to Facebook, the internet or other forms of social media,” the judgment stated.

It found that his “motives were genuine” and that he was driven by Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations”.

“We accepted that, on that particular Easter Day, the fact that there were few people on the High Street in Sutton was immaterial to Mr Sathiyavan for, as he told the Court, if one person was ‘saved’ that was sufficient as he would have done as Christ did, namely, to go in search of the one lost sheep.”