Editing Operation Spanner (section)

{{Short description|Police investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism in the United Kingdom in the 1980s}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2019}}
[[File:Picket outside the Old Bailey following the Operation Spanner judgement.jpg|alt=Image shows a man holding a sign reading "Keep Your Laws Off Our Bodies", while another man wears a set of handcuffs|thumb|[[OutRage!]] protesters picket the [[Old Bailey]] following the Spanner trial, December 1990]]
{{LGBT rights in the United Kingdom sidebar}}
'''Operation Spanner''' was a police investigation into same-sex male [[sadomasochism]] across the [[United Kingdom]] in the late 1980s. The investigation, led by the Obscene Publications Squad of the [[Metropolitan Police]], began in 1987 and ran for three years,<ref name=":0">{{cite court|litigants=Regina v Ian Wilkinson, Peter John Grindley, Colin Laskey, Anthony Joseph Brown, Graham William Cadman, Roland Leonard Jaggard, Saxon Lucas, Donald Peter Anderson (and others)|court=Central Criminal Court|reporter=|vol=|opinion=|pinpoint=|date=1990|access-date=}}</ref> during which approximately 100 gay and bisexual men were questioned by police.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|title=Sex and martyrdom|last=Savage|first=Jon|date=29 January 1992|work=The Observer}}</ref>

The investigation culminated in a report naming 43 individuals, of whom the [[Director of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales)|Director of Public Prosecutions]] chose to prosecute 16 men<ref name=":11">{{Cite news|title=Leaders of vicious and perverted sex gang jailed|last=Young|first=David|date=20 December 1990|work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> for [[assault occasioning actual bodily harm]], [[unlawful wounding]] and other offences related to consensual, private sadomasochistic sex sessions held in various locations between 1978 and 1987.<ref name=":0" />

A resulting [[Judicial functions of the House of Lords|House of Lords]] judgement, ''[[R v Brown]]'', ruled that consent was not a valid legal defence for actual bodily harm in Britain.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Lords reject appeals by sado-masochists|last=MacKinnon|first=Ian|date=12 March 1993|work=The Independent}}</ref>

The case sparked a national conversation about the limits of consent and the role of government in sexual encounters between consenting adults.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|title=S&M: The limits of liberty|last=Kershaw|first=Alex|date=28 November 1992|work=The Guardian}}</ref> It also spawned two activist organisations dedicated to promoting the rights of sadomasochists: [[Countdown on Spanner]] and [[The Sexual Freedom Coalition]],  and an annual [[SM Pride March]] through [[Central London]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Antidote to Shame|last=Califia|first=Pat|date=September 1999|work=Out}}</ref> In 1996, Countdown on Spanner received the Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theleatherjournal.com/pantheon-awards/recipients|title=Pantheon of Leather Awards All Time Recipients|website=The Leather Journal|access-date=26 December 2020|archive-date=25 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325083826/https://www.theleatherjournal.com/pantheon-awards/recipients|url-status=dead}}</ref>