In what has been hailed as a  stunning victory for freedom of speech and common sense in Scotland, a judge has dismissed criminal charges against a 75-year-old grandmother, who was arrested for offering consensual conversation in an abortion “buffer zone”.

Rose Docherty was the first person to be criminally charged under Scotland’s 2024 abortion-exclusion zone law.

Her arrest sparked expressions of concern in the UK and around the world, including from the Scottish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and from the US State Department, who described it as “another egregious example of the tyrannical suppression of free speech happening across Europe”.

Reacting to the ruling, Rose Docherty commented: “This 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”.