A British street preacher has been paid nearly $3,800 and had some of his legal fees reimbursed after he was arrested and held in a jail cell for 11 hours after he was falsely accused of homophobia back in 2013

Rob Hughes, 38, told The Daily Mail this week that he was speaking in Essex when a woman said she was "gay and proud" and told him to get "off your pedestal," as his "homophobia is not in this town."

But Hughes had a voice recording of what he had said in that day and it proved he did not reference homosexuality.

"I was taken to the police station, processed, mugshot, fingerprints, DNA, the whole works," Hughes said. "I was in a cell for about 11 hours, and then my solicitor finally arrived."

He said the police interviewed him, asking him if he had said what the complainant had said, and that he had told them he had a recording but the police did not want to hear it.

Shortly after he was interviewed, the police told him he would be released and no further action was to be taken. He sued through the British court system and received the cash settlement and his legal fees paid through an out-of-court settlement for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and breach of his human rights.

"The whole experience left me feeling that street preachers, it's now a case of being presumed guilty until found innocent, which is really the wrong way round," Hughes commented. "Christians should be gracious in the midst of persecution, but at the same time we have a right to submit a legal defense."

The Christian Legal Centre supported Hughes' case, and its founder, Andrea Minichiello Williams told The Daily Mail that there are further examples of the freedom of Christian preachers being restricted, when their speech is lawful.

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