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Anti-abortion campaigner convicted for assault

Moira Brennan, anti-abortion campaigner, with Precious Life director Bernadette Smyth
Moira Brennan, anti-abortion campaigner, with Precious Life director Bernadette Smyth Moira Brennan, anti-abortion campaigner, with Precious Life director Bernadette Smyth

ANTI-ABORTION group Precious Life has refused to comment on the conviction of one of its members for assault.

Moira Brennan attacked an employee of the Family Planning Association (FPA) outside their Belfast offices, chasing her down the street and hitting her with a clipboard.

The FPA provides advice and counselling for women dealing with unplanned pregnancies.

Brennan (46), from Lisheegan road in Ballymoney, was protesting outside the FPA last May when she approached her victim, in the belief she was pregnant, and tried to stuff anti-abortion literature into her bag.

Following her conviction at Belfast magistrates’ court earlier this week, she was fined £400 and ordered to pay her victim £400 in compensation.

When contacted a member of Precious Life said Ms Brennan was “just a volunteer” and her conviction had “nothing to do with them”.

The case comes a week after the group’s high-profile director Bernie Smyth won her appeal for assaulting Dawn Purvis, the former clinic director of Marie Stopes in Northern Ireland.

The FPA welcomed Brennan’s conviction, describing the type of protests staged outside their workplace as “unacceptable”,

“There is a fundamental difference between the right to peaceful protest – which we respect and defend – and what these people do, which is to block entrances, question women why they are coming into the building, try to force leaflets with offensive imagery…and intimidate staff.”