Spanner Goes to Jail

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.