A court in the U.K. has cleared a 72-year-old Christian street pastor of all charges a year after his arrest for purportedly causing “alarm and distress” in London by preaching about the biblical definition of marriage, which police said was “hate speech.”

Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court acquitted Pastor John Sherwood of the Penn Free Methodist Church in north London, whose defense was centered on Article 10 of the 1998 Human Rights Act.

“The trial was quite remarkable in that there was so much Scripture quoted in it. Pastor Sherwood was determined to impress upon the prosecution that everything that he ever preaches upon is grounded in the final authority of God’s word, the Bible,” Sherwood’s colleague, Pastor Peter Simpson, who was with Sherwood at the time of his preaching, told Conservative Woman U.K.

Article 10 of the 1998 Human Rights Act states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority.”

At the trial, “the public gallery was full with Christians showing their support for a man of God who is willing to stand up for the truths of Scripture,” Simpson was quoted as saying. And after the trial, Pastor Sherwood recited words of the hymn, “To God be the glory, Great things he hath done.”

Last April, Sherwood had been speaking on Genesis 1:27-28 in the northwest London town of Uxbridge, arguing that marriage is between one man and one woman, when he was approached by police officers and told that three complaints had been received about his preaching. The police accused him of causing “alarm and distress” to members of the public and arrested him.

On April 23, 2021, Sherwood was held overnight at a police station. In September, he was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which outlaws “threatening or abusive words or behavior likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress,” according to Christian Today.

Sherwood’s arrest was captured on video and condemned as “brutal” by the campaign group Christian Concern.

A police officer spoke to Simpson at the time and ordered him not to offend people who identify as gay by quoting from the Bible, even though there is no law protecting people from being offended.

“I responded that the police would have no objection whatsoever to a Pride parade being held in Uxbridge, yet that would be highly offensive to Bible-believing Christians,” Simpson wrote at the time. “The officer did not appear to appreciate the logic behind this argument.”

Police officers urged Sherwood to come down from a step ladder he was preaching from as he “respectfully” informed police he has freedom of speech and people have the freedom to ignore him and continue walking if they disagree with his statements, Simpson wrote.

Sherwood resumed preaching and spoke of the “precious right to freedom of speech,” which is traced back to the Magna Carta in 1215 and the Bill of Rights in 1689. Onlookers again accused him of making homophobic statements and hate speech.

The officers proceeded to pull the pastor down from the ladder, handcuffed and arrested him.

A lady in the crowd was heard saying, “it’s a Christian country, let him speak,” while Simpson noted that others in the crowd had accused him of hate speech.

An Ohio university has settled a high-profile case with a Christian professor by saying it won’t force him to use transgender pronouns and agreeing to pay $400,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.

Shawnee State University settled the case in recent days, approximately one year after the U.S. Sixth Court of Appeals sided with philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether, a devout Christian who was disciplined by the school for not using the preferred pronouns of a transgender student.

The university “has agreed that Meriwether has the right to choose when to use, or avoid using, titles or pronouns when referring to or addressing students,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Meriwether. Further, the university agreed that Meriwether “will never be mandated to use pronouns, including if a student requests pronouns that conflict with his or her biological sex,” ADF said.

Prior to the lawsuit, Meriwether had offered the university a compromise, proposing to use only students’ last names. He also offered to use the students’ preferred pronouns if he could state in the syllabus he was doing so under compulsion. The university rejected both compromises.

The controversy began when a biologically male student who identifies as female wanted to be referred to with female pronouns.

The lawsuit and settlement have proven to be costly for the university, which agreed to pay Meriwether $400,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.

Last year the Sixth Circuit ruled that the school had violated Meriwether’s free-speech protections as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

“This case forced us to defend what used to be a common belief – that nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job,” said ADF senior counsel Travis Barham. “Dr. Meriwether went out of his way to accommodate his students and treat them all with dignity and respect, yet his university punished him because he wouldn’t endorse an ideology that he believes is false.”