Salter welcomes criminal justice bill to outlaw images of violent porn |
Reading West MP, Martin Salter, has welcomed the publication this week of the government’s new Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which makes good their promise of creating a new criminal offence for the possession of violent and extreme pornographic material.
The publication of the Bill is the latest development in the three and a half year campaign led by Reading mum Liz Longhurst and supported by MPs Martin Salter (Reading West) and David Lepper (Brighton Pavilion). The campaign was launched in February 2004 following the death of Brighton schoolteacher Jane Longhurst in March 2003. Jane was brought up in Reading. The MPs organised a delegation from the Longhurst family to meet with the then Home Secretary David Blunkett MP. A national petition was launched calling for extreme pornographic images featuring rape, torture and necrophilia to be treated under the law the same way as child pornography. Following further meetings with the new Home Secretary Charles Clarke MP the government launched a formal consultation in August 2005 regarding the creation of a new offence, to which both MPs responded. Following the end of the consultation period, the government announced its intention to outlaw the possession of this material in August 2006, and committed Parliamentary time in last November’s Queen’s Speech. Currently it is an offence to publish this material but not an offence to possess it. The campaign has attracted the support of Amnesty International, many church groups and women’s organisations and 180 MPs of all parties. Mr Salter said: “It’s been a long road but I am delighted to see the new Criminal Justice Bill begin its passage through Parliament. I look forward to the day when the possession of sick and depraved images of people being raped, tortured, and killed, sometimes live on camera, in order to fuel a highly profitable but grotesque segment of the porn market will be made illegal. This material is already outlawed under the existing Obscene Publications Act in respect of publication and distribution. "However, the growth of the internet has made it impossible to go after publishers based abroad and out of reach of British law. Hopefully making the possession of these images a criminal offence will cut down the demand for this dreadful material which has the potential to tip some people over the edge.” |
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