Lesson plan
Operation Spanner
protesters picket the Old Bailey following the Spanner trial, December 1990 Operation Spanner was a late-1980s police investigation in the United Kingdom into consensual same-sex sadomasochistic practices. The Metropolitan Police Obscene Publications Squad conducted the inquiry from 1987 to 1990, questioning about 100 gay and bisexual men. The investigation produced a report naming 43 individuals. The Director of Public Prosecutions charged 16 men with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, unlawful wounding, and related offences for consensual acts in private between 1978 and 1987. The prosecutions culminated in the House of Lords case R v Brown, which established that consent is not a valid defence for actual bodily harm. The case prompted public and legal debate about the limits of consent and the extent of the state's authority over private sexual behaviour.
Article summary
protesters picket the Old Bailey following the Spanner trial, December 1990 Operation Spanner was a late-1980s police investigation in the United Kingdom into consensual same-sex sadomasochistic practices. The Metropolitan Police Obscene Publications Squad conducted the inquiry from 1987 to 1990, questioning about 100 gay and bisexual men. The investigation produced a report naming 43 individuals. The Director of Public Prosecutions charged 16 men with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, unlawful wounding, and related offences for consensual acts in private between 1978 and 1987. The prosecutions culminated in the House of Lords case R v Brown, which established that consent is not a valid defence for actual bodily harm. The case prompted public and legal debate about the limits of consent and the extent of the state's authority over private sexual behaviour.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.