Lilith
11-13-2002, 07:53 AM
AFP [ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2002 10:57:47 PM ]
LONDON: British prisoners will be allowed to receive hardcore pornography after a serial murderer used European human rights law to overturn a ban by prison authorities, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
The British prison service is now drafting new regulations giving wardens discretion to allow inmates to receive pornography after a number of prisoners argued the ban violated the Human Rights Act which guarantees freedom of expression and the right to receive information.
In particular the change stems from a campaign by Dennis Nilsen, jailed in 1983 for murdering six young men, for the right to receive explicit homosexual pornography, said the newspaper.
British prisoners had been allowed to receive only soft pornography available from regular newstands, and guards would sometimes tear out pages containing pictures deemed too explicit.
An advocate for victims of crime criticised the decision by the prison service.
"It is not a human right to look at hardcore pornography," the newspaper quoted as saying Norman Brennan, the director of Victims of Crime Trust. "Soon we will be apologising to prisoners for sending them to jail"
"I believe that even serving prisoners who have committed terrible crimes should be allowed their human rights but this makes a mockery of the whole system," he told the newspaper.
The European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into British law as the Human Rights Act in 2000 by the Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
LONDON: British prisoners will be allowed to receive hardcore pornography after a serial murderer used European human rights law to overturn a ban by prison authorities, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
The British prison service is now drafting new regulations giving wardens discretion to allow inmates to receive pornography after a number of prisoners argued the ban violated the Human Rights Act which guarantees freedom of expression and the right to receive information.
In particular the change stems from a campaign by Dennis Nilsen, jailed in 1983 for murdering six young men, for the right to receive explicit homosexual pornography, said the newspaper.
British prisoners had been allowed to receive only soft pornography available from regular newstands, and guards would sometimes tear out pages containing pictures deemed too explicit.
An advocate for victims of crime criticised the decision by the prison service.
"It is not a human right to look at hardcore pornography," the newspaper quoted as saying Norman Brennan, the director of Victims of Crime Trust. "Soon we will be apologising to prisoners for sending them to jail"
"I believe that even serving prisoners who have committed terrible crimes should be allowed their human rights but this makes a mockery of the whole system," he told the newspaper.
The European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into British law as the Human Rights Act in 2000 by the Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair.