The Mormon church today won a High Court injunction against an evangelical preacher whose pursuit of their missionaries “bordered on the obsessional”.
Mr Justice Beatson imposed an exclusion order on Andrew Price, a minister in the Church of England (Continuing), after ruling that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had established its case in nuisance and harassment.
Mr Price, of Weston Road, South Acton, west London, cannot now go within 30 metres of any of the church’s properties – except in the case of Exhibition Road, South Kensington, where the ban only applies to the side of the road on which the premises are situated.
Another order prevents him from contacting any missionaries on their mobile phones, by voice or text, unless express permission has been given and not withdrawn.
Mr Price, who told the court that he could not afford to hire a barrister, now faces an estimated £30,000 costs bill.
The judge said that Mr Price, who described himself as a missionary to Mormons, said that his 20-year ministry manifested itself in speaking about what he regarded as the “sinister, anti-social and non-Christian” nature of the church, which he regarded as a cult.
He heard evidence that Mr Price had shouted and screamed outside services and meetings, followed missionaries on to buses, tube trains and into Sainsbury’s, gone to their homes and bombarded them with up to 4,000 cold-calls.
“His behaviour, although undoubtedly based on sincere religious beliefs, bordered on the obsessional”, said the judge, sitting in London.