Extreme porn and state-enabled voyeurism

In a landmark case for the state versus privacy, Simon Walsh, former aide to Boris Johnson, was this week cleared of charges of having ‘extreme’ images and an indecent image of a child.

After the allegations emerged in November, the London Mayor and his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister fired Walsh after his refusal to stand down from his post as a mayoral appointee to the London fire authority.

So, was the issue Walsh taking these pictures at work? Viewing scores of illegal images on his work computer? Or sending them over a work email?

In fact they were a handful of personal images. On his personal email account. Of himself and others involved in consensual, adult sex.

I’d prefer not to go into detail about the sexual orientation of Mr Walsh and his friends; it is, as the jury found, irrelevant.

Opening the trial at Kingston Crown Court, prosecutor Thomas Wilkins said: ‘Pornography is extreme and therefore illegal if it is grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise obscene and shows an activity likely to cause serious injury.’

The images at the centre of the case showed acts including fisting and urethral sounding (inserting surgical rods into the urethra). It’s not for everyone, granted, and Walsh was described as having a ‘strange sex life’ – but it wasn’t forced. What’s “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise obscene“ is for some their more favoured type of porn.

It seems a legal incongruity that one could face criminal prosecution for possessing images of “extreme porn”, which are perfectly legal acts. It’s the possession of images we’re supposed to be alarmed about here, not the safety of the individual presumably, otherwise, the acts would be made illegal.

The Crown Prosecution Service said Walsh possessed an image of a child, despite the accompanying text describing the person’s actual age to be mid-twenties. Presumably this was to bulk up the tenuous charges. The prosecution were unable to prove that he ever opened, viewed or knew about the image.

It is a daunting prospect that people can be fired from their job, dragged through court and publicly humiliated for experimenting sexually. A hint of irony is sprinkled over the case as 50 Shades of Grey – which contains S&M – has recently become the fastest ever selling book replacing Harry Potter. There’s a market outside of missionary, who would have thought?

Fortunately the jury at Kingston Crown Court took just over one hour to unanimously acquit Simon Walsh on all counts.

The main discrepancy lies not with the law, but where exactly the law can be applied and to what extent this should be of any public interest unless anyone was harmed during the activity.

The result when mis-applied: a humiliating trial and a ruined reputation.

Walsh has commented that he had not given up his right to a private sex life when he stood for public office. And nor should he, or anyone.

Voyeurism is a key factor in the success of popular media, and this is an example of that voyeurism being enabled by an arm of the state.

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• Jayaydee

  ‘Lower profile rather flies in the face of what niged says doesn’t it? But I suspect he has other problems with her and her organisation which are colouring his judgement and comments?

  Perhaps they’re waiting for detailed proposals before mounting a campaign/commenting? Wouldn’t that be sensible?

  Let’s hope that Cam & Clegg have too full plates, for the time being. I suspect they have, in many different directions? They can no longer argue that employment legislation and civil liberties legislation has any material effect on employment and growth can they? They’d be publicly ridiculed if they di. But it depends very much on the Tory back benches and whether or not Cam needs their support to stay in power? Clegg will also find it hard/impossible to sway his MP’s and other supporters to the Tory opinion, I would have felt?

• Bold Debauchery

  No ! That was a guy he fisted!?

• peter taylor

  Bob, maybe it was the fact that he had high flying enemies that got him in this mess in the first place.

• myguitarwantstokillyourmama

  Determining the age of a person from a photograph can actually be extremely difficult; it is certainly not an exact science and can be very contentious in such cases. Whilst I cannot vouch for the CPS system, one would hope that they sought expert advice (though this is not strictly necessary), and that this suggested that the individual in the image was a child. If their advice waas otherwise, they may have acted vexatiously and in bad faith, leaving them open to prosecution.
  What I found incredible was the argument in the article that the CPS should have considered that the “child” image was an adult because “the accompanying text” described the person as being in their mid-20s! Surely one would expect a little more enquiry than that?! “Oh, it’s ok, this may look a lot like a child being abused, but the accompanying text says it is an image of a lunar landing craft. Best just leave it then…”

• nanook_northpole

  We’ve moved on since then – now Photos steal souls.

• Darren Anderson

  You can stick this story up your urethra for all i care

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Porter/1249214006 Stephen Porter

  was it that he accessed his private email account at work. im not saying this was the case, but if he did would that not be open to inspection by his bosses. if it was contained on their hard disc. as far as his sexual preference goes, i am assuming he was gay. i may be wrong. but regardless his acts, are his and the other consenting adults choice and right.

  sounds like a grudge case to me, somebody wanted him out. excuse the pun.

• Newsbot9

  The point is right now the councils need suspicion, they can’t just trawl…

  (The intelligence services? Can do pretty much what they like in terms of what they intercept, but they don’t want to PAY for it, so they’re essentially proposing that pretty much anyone in government have the access so they can push the very high costs onto internet users, which is likely to mean poorer people have to drop…)

• Newsbot9

  Invasive laws, like the ones which bosses have to put up with – those pesky “worker rights” things.

• Newsbot9

  Ah yes, moralism. It depends, actually, on the employer’s policies. Which vary.