Rosalind Comyn, defending, highlighted that the defendant had no previous convictions. She added: "The council hasn't produced any evidence that Ms Tossici-Bolt was in fact either observed by any service user or any other forms of harm were caused by her behaviour. "My point is not that breaches can never cause harm, rather that there is no evidence that Ms Tossici-Bolt's conduct did in this case." Ms Tossici-Bolt, a retired medical scientist living in Bournemouth, Dorset, said previously she was "grateful to the US State Department for taking note of my case". She added: "Great Britain is supposed to be a free country, yet I've been dragged through court merely for offering consensual conversation. I'm thankful to ADF International for supporting my legal defence. "Peaceful expression is a fundamental right - no-one should be criminalised for harmless offers to converse." She went on to say that "It is tragic to see that the increase of censorship in this country has made the US feel it has to remind us of our shared values and basic civil liberties". "I'm grateful to the US administration for prioritising the preservation and promotion of freedom of expression and for engaging in robust diplomacy to that end," she said. She continued: "It deeply saddens me that the UK is seen as an international embarrassment when it comes to free speech. "My case, involving only a mere invitation to speak, is but one example of the extreme and undeniable state of censorship in Great Britain today. "It is important that the Government actually does respect freedom of expression, as it claims to."