PENDLETON, England – In what is reported to be the first instance of someone being jailed under the UK’s new law banning “extreme porn,” a British man has been remanded to custody after being charged with possessing DVDs containing “content of a bestial nature.”Nathan Porter was remanded Aug. 26 on seven counts of extreme-porn possession, two days after police searched his home and confiscated seven DVDs and Porter’s computer. The computer remains under examination, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Porter’s is only the second prosecution under the extreme-porn ban since the law went into effect in January. In June, a 20-year-old St. Helens man was convicted in magistrate’s court of possessing on his computer hard drive 14 images depicting women with animals. The man was sentenced to 18 months of supervision and ordered to pay court costs of £65, but was not jailed.
England’s magistrate’s courts are similar to municipal courts in the U.S. Porter is expected be tried in Crown Court, a venue devoted to serious crimes. That has some observers wondering whether the crown expects to find more serious material on Porter’s computer. In the past, only cases that have been termed “extreme porn-plus” — primarily cases involving child abuse — have received hearings in Crown Court.
Production of so-called “extreme porn” — images that depict “necrophilia, bestiality and violence that is life threatening or likely to result in serious injury to the anus, breasts or genitals” — has been illegal in the UK for quite some time. Possession of the material, however, lacking intent to distribute, was not a matter for the courts prior to January. When Parliament took up debate about the proposed legislation, controversy immediately erupted as police departments and rank-and-file citizens criticized the bill’s vague definitions. Following the law’s passage, local law enforcement agencies pledged they would not “actively enforce” the statute.
According to The Register staff writer John Ozimek, “The fact that an unconvicted individual can spend time in prison before a court has considered the nature of the material for which they have been arrested could well re-ignite debate on the issue. Individuals may be remanded in custody on a number of grounds — usually where there is fear of them absconding, or where they might interfere with an ongoing investigation. According to the CPS and police, opposition to bail in this case was the latter: Investigations are still ongoing for other serious matters.”
Porter is expected to remain in custody until at least Oct. 7, when a judge is scheduled to decide how the case will proceed. If he is convicted, Porter faces up to three years in prison, fines and registration as a sex offender.
Police have not revealed how they became aware Porter possessed the images.
