Police investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism in the United Kingdom in the 1980s
Operation Spanner was a police investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism across the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The investigation, led by the Obscene Publications Squad of the Metropolitan Police, began in 1987 and ran for three years, during which approximately 100 gay and bisexual men were questioned by police.
The investigation culminated in a report naming 43 individuals, of whom the Director of Public Prosecutions chose to prosecute 16 men for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, unlawful wounding and other offences related to consensual, private sadomasochistic sex sessions held in various locations between 1978 and 1987.
A resulting House of Lords judgement, "R v Brown", ruled that consent was not a valid legal defence for actual bodily harm in Britain.
The case sparked a national conversation about the limits of consent and the role of government in sexual encounters between consenting adults. It also spawned two activist organisations dedicated to promoting the rights of sadomasochists: Countdown on Spanner and The Sexual Freedom Coalition, and an annual SM Pride March through Central London. In 1996, Countdown on Spanner received the Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.
Background.
Attitudes to homosexuality.
The 1980s was a period of rising negative sentiments towards homosexuality in Britain, peaking in 1987 when the British Social Attitudes Survey found that 75% of the population thought that homosexual activity was always or mostly wrong. That year, a high-profile public information campaign "Don't Die of Ignorance" saw the delivery of an educational leaflet about HIV/AIDS to every household in Britain. The association of gay and bisexual men with the AIDS pandemic worsened their stigmatisation.
The Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher made opposition to LGBT education a pillar of its 1987 general election campaign, issuing posters accusing the Labour Party of promoting the book "Young, Gay and Proud" in British schools. At that year's Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher warned that children were being taught "that they have an inalienable right to be gay".
Policing and the law.
In 1988, Section 28 of the Local Government Act prohibited local authorities from "intentionally promoting homosexuality". The measure received broad support from Conservative MPs including Peter Bruinvels, who commented that "Clause 28 will help outlaw [homosexuality] and the rest will be done by AIDS". In the years that followed, further legislation was proposed to discriminate against LGBT foster carers and to increase the penalties for cruising.
Although male homosexuality had been partially decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, the offence of gross indecency was still widely used to criminalise sexual activity between men. An investigation by "Gay Times" found that police in England and Wales recorded 2,022 such offences in 1989, the highest rate since decriminalisation. That year, 30% of all convictions for sexual offences in England and Wales concerned consensual gay sex, with such prosecutions costing the government £12 million, and the resulting prison terms an estimated £5.5 million.
The Obscene Publications Squad.
The Obscene Publications Squad was a branch of the Metropolitan Police tasked with enforcing obscenity law, most notably the Obscene Publications Act 1959, which forbade the distribution of any article that "[tended] to deprave and corrupt" those who encountered it.
In 1976, following a three-year internal inquiry, it was revealed that the squad had been running a protection racket over the Soho sex industry for at least two decades, with Detective Superintendent William Moody alone receiving an estimated £25,000 a year in bribes. Prosecutors described a systemically corrupt organisation in which new recruits were coerced into attending 'Friday night shareouts', during which officers would be taken one by one into a store room at Scotland Yard and handed cash. Over the next two years, 13 officers were jailed, earning the Obscene Publications Squad its nickname: The Dirty Squad.
In the wake of the scandal, officers of the Obscene Publications Squad were limited to two years of service, later extended to three, in an effort to combat corruption. The reformed squad allied itself with the socially conservative campaign group National Viewers' and Listeners' Association and its controversial founder Mary Whitehouse, with the head of the squad becoming an annual speaker at Whitehouse's fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The squad gained significant notoriety during this period for its role in the 'video nasties' moral panic—during which its officers raided video rental shops and seized horror films such as "Evil Dead II" and "The Driller Killer"—as well as a crackdown on gay pornography. Its critics accused it of having a Christian fundamentalist agenda, while the Lesbian and Gay Policing Association said its activities "damaged relations" between the LGBT community and the police.
Investigation.
In October 1987, Greater Manchester Police acquired a videotape, codenamed 'KL7', depicting consensual sadomasochistic sexual activity between a group of men, including a sequence in which one man passed a nail through a piercing in another man's foreskin and hammered it into a block of wood, before making a series of incisions into the man's penis with a scalpel.
Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation into the KL7 tape and began looking for the men featured in the video. Their enquiries expanded as further tapes featuring whipping, spanking and wax play were seized, eventually leading to the involvement of sixteen police forces including [[West Mercia Police]] and [[West Yorkshire Police]]. A meeting was held to discuss the organisational structure of the expanded probe, and it was decided that the Obscene Publications Squad of the Metropolitan Police should lead the investigation, now called Operation Spanner.
On 4 November 1987, raids were carried out at the homes of men in [[Bolton]], [[Shrewsbury]] and [[Shropshire]]. At the Shropshire address, [[Detection dog|sniffer dogs]] were taken around the property's garden, with police claiming to have reason to think that individuals may have been killed during the making of the tapes. Activists and defence lawyers later questioned the likelihood of the men's consensual [[Amateur pornography|home sex videos]] being mistaken for [[snuff film]]s, leading [[Michael Hames|Detective Superintendent Michael Hames]] of the Obscene Publications Squad to admit that he could not explain how such an error could have been made. Nonetheless, he later insisted, "such reckless and escalating violence, left unchecked, was bound to lead to someone getting killed".
Those interviewed during the raids described a loose knit circle of men who met through advertisements in gay [[Classified magazine|contact magazines]] and gathered regularly in various locations for sadomasochistic [[Group sex|sex sessions]], some of which were recorded to video and shared among the group. Most cooperated fully with the police's enquiries, acknowledging their involvement in the group and identifying themselves on the seized tapes, unaware that they may have broken the law.
Further raids were carried out on 10 November in [[Pontypridd]], where a large quantity of sadomasochistic paraphernalia was seized, and on 11 November in [[Birmingham]]. The same day, the offices of the gay magazine "Sir" were raided. Other contact magazines including Gay Galaxy and Corporal Contacts were also raided during the course of the investigation. Two further raids were carried out on 16 November, at homes in [[Welwyn Garden City]] and [[Hampstead]].
That month, the first reports of the investigation appeared in the gay press. One man questioned by police in relation to Operation Spanner told "Him" magazine that officers were working from a diary seized during an earlier raid, and had mentioned snuff films in the course of their questioning. An officer with Greater Manchester Police denied that the operation was related to snuff films but went on to falsely speculate that the investigation may be connected to an unsolved 1985 murder in [[Leeds]].
By the beginning of 1988, police still did not know the identities of the two men on the KL7 tape, despite having unknowingly interviewed the man who filmed the scene the previous November. Though no faces were visible on the tape, the Obscene Publications Squad attempted to identify one of the men by a distinctive joint [[deformity]] on the index finger of his left hand, distributing a still image of the finger to police forces across the UK.
[[File:Panorama close up revealing Operation Spanner suspect.jpg|thumb|A close-up shot from [[Panorama (TV programme)|"Panorama"]], used to identify one of the men featured on the KL7 tape|alt=]]
On 29 March, an officer with [[Hampshire Constabulary]] reported that he had spotted the man on that week's episode of [[Panorama (TV programme)|"Panorama"]]. Detectives consulted a recording of the episode and recognised their suspect in a sequence depicting a "special service of blessing" performed by a [[Church of England]] reverend for a gay couple. The man's joint deformity was visible in a [[close-up]] shot of his partner placing a ring onto his finger. A week later, on 7 April, police interviewed the man at a cafe in [[Evesham]], and proceeded to search his home. He identified the other man on the KL7 tape, and a raid was carried out on that man's [[Broadway, Worcestershire|Broadway]] home the same day.
As the case began to come together, reporters were briefed that Operation Spanner "could be dealt with at the [[Old Bailey]]", prompting speculation that [[Offences triable only on indictment|indictable-only offences]] would be brought against the men. The Obscene Publications Squad continued to build their case throughout 1989, even as the Metropolitan Police sought to replace the head of the squad, Detective Superintendent Leslie Bennett, after he was found to have used the [[Police National Computer]] to look up the license plate of his ex-wife's new partner.
Over the course of the investigation, in excess of 400 videotapes were seized, though a large number of these were commercial releases, and in some cases non-pornographic. The cost of the investigation was estimated at £2.5 million. Police were unable to find any participants who had not consented to the activities which took place, nor any who sustained lasting injuries.
In September 1989, sixteen men were charged with more than 100 offences including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and unlawful wounding. Several were charged with [[aiding and abetting]] assaults against themselves, charges which the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] said were "rare, except in cases where injuries were allegedly inflicted for a false insurance claim". In addition, one man was charged with [[bestiality]] and two were charged in relation to an [[Protection of Children Act 1978|indecent photograph of a child]].
Trials.
Magistrates' Court.
On 9 October 1989, the men appeared before Camberwell Magistrates' Court to face the charges against them. They were remanded to reappear at [[Lambeth Magistrates' Court]] on 20 November.
The charges brought against the men included conspiracy charges, which as indictable-only offences can only be heard in [[Crown Court]], so the case was referred to the [[Old Bailey]]. The fact that these charges were later dropped led to accusations that the government viewed the trial as a [[Test case (law)|test case]], and intentionally sought to have it heard in Crown Court, where legal precedent could be set in the event of a guilty verdict.
Old Bailey.
[[File:Justice Old Bailey (4868602671).jpg|alt=Statue of Lady Justice|thumb|Lady Justice statue atop the Old Bailey]]
The trial at the Old Bailey began on 29 October 1990 before [[James Rant|Judge James Rant]]. The judge heard legal arguments from some of the accused that they could not be guilty because everyone involved had consented to what took place. However, Judge Rant rejected the argument and ruled that consent was not a defence, commenting that "people must sometimes be protected from themselves".
His decision relied heavily on "[[R v Coney]]", an 1882 case in which participants in a [[bare-knuckle boxing]] match were found guilty of assault despite their consent to take part, and "R v Donovan", a 1934 case in which a man was convicted of assault for caning a woman with her consent. After Judge Rant's ruling, the defendants changed their pleas to guilty, and were convicted on 7 November.
The remainder of the trial was dedicated to sentencing. Beginning on 11 December 1990, prosecutor Michael Worsley QC detailed the defendants' behaviour, which he characterised as "brute homosexual activity in sinister circumstances, about as far removed as can be imagined from the concept of human love". He explained that the state's evidence came not only from the men's own testimony, but also the many home videos seized during the investigation, though he conceded that these tapes had not been intended for distribution.
He described a group whose "nucleus" of key members "corrupted" others into attending "sessions of violence", where sadistic "masters" assaulted