When Fiona Pinto was arrested for displaying a photograph in public, it didn't depict graphic sex or violence of the sort freely available on the internet.

Miss Pinto, 23, of Osborne Gardens, Potters Bar, was held in police cells for four hours with her colleague, Joseph Biddulph, before being charged under the 1986 Public Order Act on Thursday.

Her alleged crime was showing an image of a 21-week-old aborted foetus, while campaigning as a candidate for the ProLife Alliance at the Welsh Assembly elections in Newport, south Wales.

She said: "We have alarming images shown every day on television, like Channel Four's autopsy, but abortion can't be shown.

"If it is so legitimate, why can't the electorate be able to see it? The reason is because it is something too shameful.

"This is a freedom of speech issue. We should be able to put our point across. We felt that we should never have been arrested."

The ProLife Alliance won 562 votes (0.3 per cent) in the South Wales East constituencey.

Miss Pinto, a parliamentary researcher, joined the ProLife party after watching a party political broadcast on television in 1997. "When I saw it, I immediately thought, 'maybe you should vote for a single issue party'. There is no other more significant issue than the right of life. We feel that this is something that should be voiced at every election."

Miss Pinto was due to stand trial on polling day (May 1), but was granted a postponement. A High Court judge allowed the party to have its poster back for the duration of the campaign, but ordered that it be handed over for use as evidence following the election.

A spokesperson for Education for Choice, a pro-choice educational charity, said images used by the ProLife Alliance 'fuddle the issue'.

"It makes it harder for young people to make clear and constructive decisions. It doesn't prevent young people having abortions, it just surrounds the whole decision making process with guilt and shame."

May 7, 2003 12:30