The story of Shaun O’Sullivan in the media this week should alarm and inspire us.
O’Sullivan’s acquittal after months of stress and a costly prosecution is a relief, but it exposes a dangerous trend that threatens the fabric of British liberty. If this can happen to a street preacher today, tomorrow it will be church leaders, journalists, and ordinary citizens, maybe like you.
For decades, the Christian Legal Centre has stood with those who dare to speak truth in public. We have been told repeatedly that we are fear-mongering, that this is a “persecution narrative.” Yet time and again, we are vindicated, sometimes years later.
Shaun’s case is the latest example of a widening malaise for Christian freedoms in Britain.
Shaun’s journey is extraordinary. He grew up in an atheist family, endured a troubled childhood, and by 15 was homeless, living in a car park. By 16, he was a criminal, addicted to crack, heroin, and alcohol. He used to have alcoholic seizures when he was 17 and says that he hated anything to do with God.
On the streets of Swindon, Shaun would heckle a street preacher every week. “He drove me crazy,” Shaun says. “But the more I heard the gospel, the more it stirred me.”
After serving time for armed robbery, Shaun hit rock bottom.
He says it got to such a point that he was going to commit suicide. On his way to do just that, he passed a church where he heard the sound of singing and worship. He remembered the preacher’s repeated messages of “God’s love” and “repentance” and he went inside.
He dropped to his knees and was born again.
From that moment, everything changed.
Shaun got off drugs, married, had children, and launched Awaken International Ministries.
Shaun felt called to street preaching and today, he stands alongside John Dunn — the very preacher he once heckled.
Street preaching is not easy. In many ways it is the front lines of the social fabric and make-up of our society.
Shaun has been spat at, punched, and threatened. He accepts that as part of the cost of following Christ. What he never expected was that the real and sustained opposition would come from the authorities.
Over the past few years, Shaun has been arrested multiple times for preaching the gospel, sometimes for saying nothing more than “God loves you”, because Police claimed this caused “distress.”
His latest arrest was the most shocking. In the lead-up to the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel, tensions were high. Pro-Gaza marches filled the streets. Shaun had a brief exchange with a group of Muslims, barely a minute long. He remembers saying, “We love the Jews.”
One phone call to the police was enough to see him charged, prosecuted, and put before a judge and jury. Police marked allegations, without evidence, that Shaun said “Jew haters” and “Palestine lovers”.
Extraordinarily, the Crown Prosecution Service did not throw the case out. In court, Shaun’s accuser admitted she didn’t like that he “spoke directly” to her.
Shaun was acquitted at the cost of £20,000 of taxpayers’ money.
The message this sends is you can not only not criticise Islam in public, you also cannot even speak with any opposition or alternative without risking everything. You only have to look at the recent similar case of John Steele on the streets of Rotherham to see how this is not an isolated occurrence.
This is not the Britain envisioned by Magna Carta (1215), the Bill of Rights (1689), or John Milton’s Areopagitica (1644). These milestones enshrined the principle that liberty means the freedom to disagree.
Yet now peaceful proclamation of Christ, or even defending Israel, is treated as a public order threat.
Shaun’s ordeal is a warning. When Christian freedoms shrink, all freedoms shrink
The rise of political Islam compounds and is at the centre of this crisis. Its growing influence is felt in government, policing, and on our streets. This is not equality or diversity; it is censorship that is becoming increasingly aggressive.
Shaun’s ordeal is a warning. When Christian freedoms shrink, all freedoms shrink. The gospel is being pushed out of public life. Honest conversations about faith and identity are becoming impossible. If we do not stand up now, the day will come when preaching Christ in public will be completely outlawed.
Shaun says: “I will keep preaching, whatever the cost. But I pray others will join me — because if we stay silent, the message that saved my life will be silenced too.”
His courage should inspire us, but what he endured should alarm us all.
More Christians, and indeed anyone who cares about our freedoms, need to wake up and face the reality of what is happening.
We need to stand with those who risk everything for truth and their Christian faith.
Without the support of the Christian Legal Centre Shaun believes he would be in prison today, simply for preaching the good news of Jesus on the streets.
It is time for more of us to speak out against this.
