Notes on the Spanner Case

In 1991, after a police investigation codenamed Operation Spanner, sixteen men were convicted in a British court of serious assault in connection with consensual SM activities, and sentenced to prison terms of up to four and a half years. The judge ruled that 'the satisfaction of sadomasochistic libido' was not grounds for a defense of consent, and even sentenced the bottoms for aiding and abetting assaults upon themselves.

Though the sentences were reduced on appeal, the judgments were upheld, and in February 1997 the European Court of Human Rights found that the British government had not violated the right to privacy by prosecuting the men. Because British law is set by precedent, it has effectively rendered all but the mildest SM in which pain is only 'transient and trifling' illegal in England and Wales; it also has implications for certain other Commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada where there is a convention of following English precedents.

So far there has been only one further related prosecution, of a man who consensually branded his wife, and this was quashed on appeal. A government research organization, The Law Commission, has also recommended changes in the law aimed at making most consensual SM legal, and under current guidelines drawn up by the English State prosecutor, the men could only have been prosecuted on much less serious charges. Nonetheless SMers in Britain are advised to be discreet and avoid keeping identifiable records of their activities.

Since the case, the term Spanner has become associated with legal struggles affecting SMers, and two Spanner groups in other parts of Europe have been started, in France and the Netherlands.

Links

• The European Court of Human Rights judgment, also available in text form.