Two experienced police officers in plain clothes had entered a bookshop owned by Clayton in which Halsey was his assistant. The officers had each selected a packet of photographs which formed the subject matter of the substantive charges. In cross-examination they both agreed that they had seen thousands of photographs of a similar character in the course of their work, and that the photographs did not arouse any feeling in them whatsoever. Convictions were quashed on the basis in effect that there was no evidence that the officers were susceptible to any degrading or corrupting influence from the articles sold to them.
Lord Parker CJ said that ‘in the case of the publication of an article by way of sale to a particular person the test of obscenity is whether the effect of the article in question upon that person was such as to tend to deprave or corrupt him.’
He then referred to Barker and to the facts of the case which was before the Court and continued: ‘This Court cannot accept the contention that a photograph may be inherently so obscene that even an experienced or scientific viewer must be susceptible to some corruption from its influence. The degree of inherent obscenity is, of course, very relevant, but it must be related to the susceptibility of the viewer. Further, whilst it is no doubt theoretically possible that the jury could take the view that even a most experienced officer, despite his protestations, was susceptible to the influence of the article yet, bearing in mind the onus and degree of proof in a criminal case, it would we think be unsafe and therefore wrong to leave that question to the jury.’
Judges:
Lord Parker CJ
Citations:
[1963] 1 QB 163, [1962] 3 WLR 815, [1962] 3 All ER500
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Perrin CACD 22-Mar-2002
The defendant had been convicted of publishing obscene articles for gain under the Act. He lived in London, and published a web site which was stored or hosted abroad, containing pornographic items. The investigating officer had called up the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.182197