THREE British gay sado masochists, in jail for inflicting pain on each other for sexual pleasure, lost their fight against the British government yesterday in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The ruling marks the final chapter in the notorious "Operation Spanner" case, which sparked a long running debate on whether the state should attempt to regulate what consenting adults do in private if no serious or lasting harm is caused. Sixteen men were rounded up and prosecuted after police accidentally found videotapes of their activities, carried out behind closed doors.
In a landmark ruling, the Strasbourg judges said the British government had the right to interfere in the private lives of people to protect public health and morals.
The judgment is the latest in a series of rulings in which the Strasbourg judges seem to have taken on board pleas by Britain that they should give greater weight to a country's particular social mores in reaching their decisions.
Colin Laskey, Roland Jaggard and Anthony Brown, who took the case to Strasbourg, were three of the 16 men convicted in 1990 of causing actual bodily harm and wounding. The three were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 12 months to three years, reduced on appeal to three months and six months.
They appealed to the Law Lords, who dismissed their appeals by a three to two majority. The majority ruled that consent was no defence to charges under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, even if there was no serious harm.
The judges acknowledged that boxing, which can cause permanent harm, was an anomaly. In a later case, a man who branded his wife's buttocks was acquitted, prompting criticism that the Spanner defendants had been criminalised for being gay.
Yesterday the Strasbourg judges dismissed claims that the men, who lost their jobs as a result of publicity over the case, were victimised because they were homosexual.
Laskey, from Pontypridd, has since died, but Jaggard (50), from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, and Brown (62), from Yardley, West Midlands, were backed by the campaigning group, Liberty.
The men's sex acts mainly involved genital abuse with hot wax, sandpaper, fish hooks and needles, as well as ritualistic beatings with spiked belts, stinging nettles and a cat o nine tails.
The gay rights group, OutRage, condemned the ruling. Its spokesman, Mr Peter Tatchell, said: "The state has no legitimate business invading the bedrooms of consenting adults and dictating how they should have sex."