A Spectator's Notebook
LAST WEEK a Northumberland vicar was prosecuted for aiding and abetting the publication of obscene photographs. There are two extremely unsatisfactory features about this prosecu- tion. The first is that the vicar had not shown the photographs to anybody at all. The Prosecution said (and legally they were correct) that he had aided and abetted publication by writing and asking an agency for them. In other words he had helped publish them to himself. If the word 'published' is used in its usual sense it is quite plain that there had been no publication at all. In using the 1861 Aiders and Abettors Act to prosecute the vicar the Director of Public Prosecutions was using it very differently from what was intended. The possession of obscene material is not in itself an offence, but the DPP is evidently trying to turn it into one. It is easy to dismiss the matter with a shrug and say that a man who buys dirty photographs deserves what he gets. But it has long been almost an instinct of English law not to interfere with a man's privacy. Provided that lie does not involve a second person in his activities he is allowed to do almost anything in private. To twist the law (by pretending that a man can publish something to himself) in order to invade that privacy seems to me wrong—even in the popular cause of dis- couraging the possession of obscene photographs. The second unsatisfactory feature is, why was this clergyman singled out for prosecution from 200 other customers of this agency? 1 understand that strictly speaking 'singled' may be the wrong word as there may have been another prosecution in Birming- ham. Still, why was the vicar picked out? Was it because it was realised that his prosecution would make a good story for the press? Or has the DPP decided that just as there used to be Benefit of Clergy there is now Penalty of Clergy? If so, by what authority has he come to this decision? It looks to me as if the vicar was just a thoroughly naive man, but even if he was not 1 think that those responsible for the prosecution have almost as much to be ashamed of us has the man they prosecuted.
Previous page
