A Baptist street preacher was reportedly arrested and tossed in jail by a gay cop for calling homosexuality a sin.
Dale McAlpine, a preacher in Cumbria in the U.K., was charged with causing "harassment, alarm or distress," London's Telegraph reports, for the harangue.
The 42-year-old denies slamming homosexuality during a sermon he delivered while perched atop a ladder, the newspaper reports, but admits he told a passerby during a conversation he believed same-sex relationships to be sinful.
McAlpine also was heard denouncing blasphemy and drunkenness.
A cop approached the woman with whom McAlpine had the conversation, and then approached the minister, telling him he faced arrest for using hate speech.
He claims he resumed preaching, and was subsequently arrested, the Telegraph reports. Cops maintained his comments about gays were made loudly enough to be heard by other passersby in the area.
"I felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know," McAlpine told the Telegraph.
"My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law that doesn't apply."
McAlpine has pleaded not guilty, the Telegraph reports, and was released on bail provided he agreed to cease preaching.
Cumbrian police did not respond to the Telegraph's requests for comment.
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