A Christian street preacher has been arrested after telling Muslim protesters "God bless you" at a pro-Palestine demonstration.

Shaun O'Sullivan, 36, claims that police are trying to suppress his freedom of speech after being arrested 16 times.

He is now planning to sue Wiltshire Police after being cleared of racial harassment following a six-day trial at Crown Court - with the taxpayer footing the bill, estimated to be around £20,000. While he has been arrested over a dozen times, not a single one of the charges have stuck.

In fact, his most recent case, in which he was accused of harassing Muslims by saying: "Pray for the Jews and pray for the Palestinians" in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict, was thrown out by the jury in less than 90 minutes.

The 36-year-old also shared an online clip in which a female police officer confirmed that saying "God bless you" could be a crime as it may "cause distress".

"If a person is Muslim", they may be distressed, she added.

Mr O'Sullivan confirmed his plans to sue Wiltshire Police: "The police have a vendetta against me – I've been told as much by individual officers who have said if someone complains about me I'll be arrested. "I'm glad that the jury were able to see sense and almost immediately dismiss the nonsense that the police and prosecution said about me.

"I'm not racist and I have no problem with people disagreeing with my religious views, but I do have a right to state them because we have freedom of speech in this country – even if it does offend people.

We say, that this is discrimination against  Shaun.  If he were a Muslim saying "God Bless You", would the police harass them?  We'll leave it up to readers to make up their own minds.

If Muslim do not like our Christian country they should feel free to go and live somewhere else.