‘Win for free speech’: British pastor arrested for preaching Bible in public sees charges dropped
Police in the United Kingdom have dropped a hate crime case against an Evangelical pastor who was arrested last year while street preaching in Bristol, ending more than four months of criminal proceedings that his lawyers said had effectively silenced him in public.
Avon and Somerset Police informed Pastor Dia Moodley, 58, that authorities will not take any further action in the case, according to the legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International. Moodley said he is now consulting with his legal team about suing Avon and Somerset Police for violating his free speech rights and for the force’s failure to investigate threats against him.
Moodley was arrested in November 2025 in Broadmead, Bristol city center, on suspicion of “inciting religious hatred” and committing a religiously aggravated public order offense under Section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986, a U.K. statute that criminalizes threatening or abusive conduct intended to stir up racial or religious hatred.
At the time of his arrest, Moodley was preaching against transgender ideology and comparing Christianity with Islam. A bystander reached for the wire of his speaker; footage appeared to show him pushing her away before she called the police.
He was arrested on suspicion of a racially or religiously aggravated public order offense and assault by beating, held in a police cell for eight hours, and released on bail conditions banning him from Bristol city center until the end of December 2025. The conditions were later dropped after he made representations to the police.
Moodley told The Telegraph he was questioned under caution about why he chose to preach near Bristol city center, where he knew Muslims would be present, and whether it was right for him to criticize trans ideology.
He refrained from preaching publicly from his arrest until Easter out of fear that he could be arrested again.
On April 4, while the investigation was still ongoing, he returned to Broadmead and preached about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. During that sermon, a Muslim bystander who objected to comparisons Moodley drew between Jesus and the Islamic prophet Muhammad was recorded saying on camera: “If you do that again bro, we’ll send the boys round … we’ll have someone have a word with you.”
Moodley reported the incident to Avon and Somerset Police. On May 1, officers told him the comments “do not constitute an offense” and cited insufficient evidence, despite the threat having been captured on video. He accused the force of “two-tier policing,” saying it had twice arrested him for lawful speech while declining to pursue what he considered a clear threat against him.
Moodley's lawyer, barrister Jeremiah Igunnubole, said in a statement that the case was a symptom of a wider pattern and called on Parliament to repeal what he described as censorial laws and pass a free speech bill.
The November 2025 arrest was Moodley’s second by Avon and Somerset Police over street preaching on Islam and trans ideology.
In March 2024, he was arrested outside the University of Bristol after speaking on Islam and stating that sex is binary. Police dropped that investigation as well.
In 2021, police banned him from commenting on any other faith and from delivering sermons without prior police approval.
Moodley said the pattern of enforcement had amounted to a sustained campaign of censorship against him. In his preaching, Moodley calls Islam “lies” and “darkness” and Christianity “light,” and contrasts the Bible with the Quran, which he says is “not true.”
He was among a group of activists who met U.S. State Department officials during a visit to the U.K. in March 2025, at a time when the Trump administration had raised concerns about free speech protections in Britain.
