Editing Operation Spanner (section)

== Investigation ==
In October 1987,<ref name=":0" /> [[Greater Manchester Police]] acquired a videotape,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/metropolitan-police/disclosure_2018/august_2018/information-rights-unit---information-on-operation-spanner|title=Freedom of Information Request|website=Metropolitan Police}}</ref> codenamed 'KL7',<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Dirty squad : the story of the Obscene Publications Branch|last=Hames, Michael.|date=2000|publisher=Little, Brown|isbn=0316853216|location=New York|oclc=44101472}}</ref> depicting consensual sadomasochistic sexual activity between a group of men, including a sequence in which one man passed a nail through a [[Genital piercing|piercing]] in another man's foreskin<ref>{{Cite news|title=Lord Lane plans ruling on violent sex games|last=Cohen|first=Nick|date=5 February 1992|work=The Independent}}</ref> and hammered it into a block of wood, before making a series of incisions into the man's penis with a scalpel.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|title=Myths, half-truths and fantasies|last=Richardson|first=Colin|date=February 1992|work=Gay Times}}</ref>

Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation into the KL7 tape and began looking for the men featured in the video.<ref name=":5" /> Their enquiries expanded as further tapes featuring [[Impact play|whipping]], [[Erotic spanking|spanking]] and [[wax play]] were seized,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Judges throw out consent appeal by sex torture group|last=Shaw|first=Terence|date=20 February 1992|work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref> eventually leading to the involvement of sixteen police forces<ref name="BAILII">{{cite BAILII|litigants=R v Brown|link=R v Brown|court=UKHL|division=|year=1993|num=19|para=|eucase=|parallelcite=1 AC 212|date=11 March 1993|courtname=auto|juris=}}</ref> including [[West Mercia Police]]<ref name=":7">{{Cite news|title=Massive vice ring quiz still going on say police|date=31 March 1988|work=Shropshire Star}}</ref> and [[West Yorkshire Police]].<ref name=":8">{{Cite news|title=Police Silence Over Gay Murder Mystery|last=Smith|first=David|date=December 1987|work=Him Magazine}}</ref> A meeting was held to discuss the organisational structure of the expanded probe, and it was decided that the Obscene Publications Squad of the Metropolitan Police should lead the investigation, now called Operation Spanner.<ref name=":5" />

On 4 November 1987, raids were carried out at the homes of men in [[Bolton]], [[Shrewsbury]] and [[Shropshire]].<ref name=":0" /> At the Shropshire address, [[Detection dog|sniffer dogs]] were taken around the property's garden, with police claiming to have reason to think that individuals may have been killed during the making of the tapes.<ref name=":13">{{Cite news|title=Torture vice gang sentenced|last=Steele|first=John|date=20 December 1990|work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref> Activists and defence lawyers later questioned the likelihood of the men's consensual [[Amateur pornography|home sex videos]] being mistaken for [[snuff film]]s,<ref name=":6" /> leading [[Michael Hames|Detective Superintendent Michael Hames]] of the Obscene Publications Squad to admit that he could not explain how such an error could have been made.<ref name=":6" /> Nonetheless, he later insisted, "such reckless and escalating violence, left unchecked, was bound to lead to someone getting killed".<ref name=":5" />

Those interviewed during the raids described a loose knit circle of men who met through advertisements in gay [[Classified magazine|contact magazines]]<ref name=":0" /> and gathered regularly in various locations for sadomasochistic [[Group sex|sex sessions]], some of which were recorded to video and shared among the group.<ref name=":18">{{Cite news|title=Defiance of an average man|last=Woods|first=Chris|date=12 March 1993|work=Capital Gay}}</ref> Most cooperated fully with the police's enquiries, acknowledging their involvement in the group and identifying themselves on the seized tapes, unaware that they may have broken the law.<ref name=":6" />

Further raids were carried out on 10 November in [[Pontypridd]], where a large quantity of sadomasochistic paraphernalia was seized, and on 11 November in [[Birmingham]].<ref name=":0" /> The same day, the offices of the gay magazine ''Sir'' were raided. Other contact magazines including Gay Galaxy and Corporal Contacts were also raided during the course of the investigation.<ref name=":8" /> Two further raids were carried out on 16 November, at homes in [[Welwyn Garden City]] and [[Hampstead]].<ref name=":0" />

That month, the first reports of the investigation appeared in the gay press. One man questioned by police in relation to Operation Spanner told ''Him'' magazine that officers were working from a diary seized during an earlier raid, and had mentioned snuff films in the course of their questioning.<ref name=":3" /> An officer with Greater Manchester Police denied that the operation was related to snuff films but went on to falsely speculate<ref name=":6" /> that the investigation may be connected to an unsolved 1985 murder in [[Leeds]].<ref name=":8" />

By the beginning of 1988, police still did not know the identities of the two men on the KL7 tape,<ref name=":5" /> despite having unknowingly interviewed the man who filmed the scene the previous November.<ref name=":0" /> Though no faces were visible on the tape, the Obscene Publications Squad attempted to identify one of the men by a distinctive joint [[deformity]] on the index finger of his left hand,<ref name=":9">{{Cite episode|title=Church of England - One Foundation?|series=Panorama|series-link=Panorama (TV programme)|date=28 March 1988}}</ref> distributing a still image of the finger to police forces across the UK.<ref name=":5" />

[[File:Panorama close up revealing Operation Spanner suspect.jpg|thumb|A close-up shot from [[Panorama (TV programme)|''Panorama'']], used to identify one of the men featured on the KL7 tape|alt=]]
On 29 March, an officer with [[Hampshire Constabulary]] reported that he had spotted the man on that week's episode of [[Panorama (TV programme)|''Panorama'']]. Detectives consulted a recording of the episode and recognised their suspect in a sequence depicting a "special service of blessing" performed by a [[Church of England]] reverend for a gay couple.<ref name=":5" /> The man's joint deformity was visible in a [[close-up]] shot of his partner placing a ring onto his finger.<ref name=":9" /> A week later, on 7 April, police interviewed the man at a cafe in [[Evesham]], and proceeded to search his home. He identified the other man on the KL7 tape, and a raid was carried out on that man's [[Broadway, Worcestershire|Broadway]] home the same day.<ref name=":0" />

As the case began to come together, reporters were briefed that Operation Spanner "could be dealt with at the [[Old Bailey]]",<ref name=":7" /> prompting speculation that [[Offences triable only on indictment|indictable-only offences]] would be brought against the men. The Obscene Publications Squad continued to build their case throughout 1989, even as the Metropolitan Police sought to replace the head of the squad, Detective Superintendent Leslie Bennett, after he was found to have used the [[Police National Computer]] to look up the license plate of his ex-wife's new partner.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Computer error by superintendent|date=11 October 1991|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

Over the course of the investigation, in excess of 400 videotapes were seized,<ref name=":4" /> though a large number of these were commercial releases, and in some cases non-pornographic.<ref name=":6" /> The cost of the investigation was estimated at £2.5 million.<ref name=":2" /> Police were unable to find any participants who had not consented to the activities which took place, nor any who sustained lasting injuries.<ref>{{Cite news|title=We don't want the government in our bedroom|last=Gerrard|first=Nicci|date=20 October 1996|work=The Observer}}</ref>

In September 1989, sixteen men were charged with more than 100 offences including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and unlawful wounding. Several were charged with [[aiding and abetting]] assaults against themselves, charges which the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] said were "rare, except in cases where injuries were allegedly inflicted for a false insurance claim".<ref name=":10">{{Cite news|title=Sixteen charged after two-year vice investigation|last=Mills|first=Heather|date=19 September 1989|work=The Independent}}</ref> In addition, one man was charged with [[bestiality]] and two were charged in relation to an [[Protection of Children Act 1978|indecent photograph of a child]].<ref name=":10" />