University of Essex | Operation Spanner: Sadomasochism, Law and Culture

In 1987, a group of homosexual men were arrested and charged with 'unlawful and malicious wounding' and 'assault occasioning actual bodily harm' for having participated in an entirely consensual group orgy involving sadomasochistic sex acts. The judge in the initial case, now known as R vs Brown, ruled that consent was no defence to the charges levelled, and all the men charged were convicted. The case was appealed by three of the men, Colin Laskey, Roland Jaggard and Anthony Brown to both the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights, but at every stage, the convictions were upheld, despite persistent criticism by legal scholars and human rights activists. The case, whose ruling still technically remains in force despite the obvious lack of interest contemporary police show in enforcing it, had profound impacts on several spheres of cultural life in Britain both within and beyond the initial impacted communities. This talk, almost thirty years on from the initial arrests and twenty years on from the ECHR ruling, will present and discuss some of these impacts, particularly in the cultural sphere.
"Dominic Johnson's work on Ron Athey and Franko B, 'Intimacy and Live Art', from which Dr Lodder quotes at length, can be found in Histories and Practices of Live Art, ed. by Deirdre Heddon and Jennie Klein (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). For more on the case, see The Spanner Trust website at www.spannertrus.... Apologies to both Roland Jaggard and Tony Brown for the inadvertent transposition of their names at the beginning of the lecture." Matt Lodder
This talk was given by Matt Lodder, a lecturer in our School of Philosophy and Art History. To find out more about Matt go to: www.essex.ac.uk...
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[@av782]

Wonderful lecture. I did Law at Edinburgh University and was absolutely appalled by the treatment of R v Brown there. I can tell you that no one had a problem with prosecuting and little to no effort was made in terms of discussing the ethical merits and consequences of that ruling, despite having an entire tutorial devoted to it.
I'm still shocked to this day that no one consulted any experts on BDSM culture during that case, nor made an effort to understand it or even DEFINE what the term means. Because the BDSM lifestyle does ascribe to strict rules and their own internal regulatory procedures, specific instances of these types of activities may actually deviate far enough out width the paradigm of what BDSM is to be considered something else entirely. One cannot label all instances of "pain for pleasure" as BDSM.
There are so many implications on the BDSM and other subcultures in the UK from that case , not to mention restrictions on art and other topics such as gay rights.

[@shakedyanko]

100% agree with this, when i studied this case at A level i was in shock at the ignorance of the judges here

[@romahodkinson4280]

I'm currently researching for my final university assessment. This has been incredibly insightful and I appreciate your dedication to this case and its implications.

[@uniessex]

Dr Matt Lodder explores a case, from 1987, where a group of homosexual men were arrested and charged with 'unlawful and malicious wounding' and 'assault occasioning actual bodily harm' for having participated in an entirely consensual group orgy involving sadomasochistic sex acts.

[@YONCE8701]

I am finding it so hard to come to terms with the fact that S&M was treated as a crime....actually TAKEN to court ......like huh????

[@summerscoming123]

YONCE 8701 there’s an Amazing short film on the guardian website about operation spanner called Lasting Marks - 15 mins long - now That is what will really blow your mind! It’s narrated by one of the defendants of the case, a lovely man called Rolan

[@melkhound]

I find it impossible to come to terms with the fact that this happened in such a morally bankrupt he'll as the UK. The workplace initiation s, stag night assaults, and those forced assaults by kissagrams are forced on sometimes unwilling victims, leaving them humiliated, and yet it is met with whoops of excitement. These men did nothing like this.

[@readmycomment3157]

Have you read the details of what happened? This wasnt a bit of light S&M, it was bestiality, a 15 year old boy, human excrement, genital torture with scalpels and a hammer and nails

[@gerbil10000]

It still is - in reality, he police are unlikely to act unless there is serious injury or a complaint, but if either of those do happen, consent is not a defence and one could still be prosecuted for assault (or aiding and abetting an assault on oneself). It's completely absurd and a continuing concern within the BDSM community

[@pensebete4114]

Tax payers in Britain are paying for the research of this guy?

[@mattlodder]

No, because that's not universities are funded. But while you're here, what is about this really important social issue, about which I have provided expert testimony in court and which has impacts on huge swathes of British and global cultural life , do you consider not worthy of study?

[@pensebete4114]

@@mattlodder I am not sure I got your point. But yes, I consider humanities are less worthy of studying. But if British tax-payers are paying for it, they need to know about it. Not sure how British universities are funded though.

[@Georgexb]

Pense Bête I’m a scientist, and you’re totally wrong. As Matt said, you hold a very common misconception about how research is funded. If a research council is willing to pay for research and give grants, the research takes place. To get a grant is no easy task, and to get one your research has to be of good quality.

[@TwiggyAlienorCameron]

@@pensebete4114 For someone who has such a strong opinion about the worthiness of humanities as an area of study, you sure have a dissapointing rationale for it. Your response as to what, specifically, is not valuable about something with human rights ramifications is essentially: I don't like it.

[@tek5692]

@@pensebete4114 If you don't have the ability to see how this is relevant to you and society in general, I feel sorry for you.