The facts are that the term obscene relates to material not allowed under UK Law.

As we all know since last year the law was changed so that material containing "normal consensual" sex including cum-shots, swallowing, facial, anal, gangbangs, double/triple penetration, lesbian sex etc is now legal to sell through licensed sex shops and entirely legal to own/import.
This applies to all formats.

Material that isn't legal i.e. Obscene includes Rape, Pissing/squirting, Animal, Under-Age, Fisting etc.
So as long as you don't import any material featuring any of the above then you are within the law.

It is highly unlikely that even if you were caught importing material featuring pissing or fisting that you would be arrested unless you were importing a large quantity or several copies of the same edition.

Remember that just because most of you regard H.M Customs as thieving bastards they still have to remain within the law and also remember that the Government can't bring in a new law just to overturn a High Court Ruling.

Thanks Lazenby

Private Porn and GGG DVD Lover

lazenbymi6@aol.com

[Link]

Could you please tell me whether someone importing a magazine, video or DVD from October 1st 2001 that shows consenting adults engaged in legal sexual acts will be committing a serious arrestable offence? What is the definition of "indecent or obscene"? Why has this change in the law been made? Is it an attempt to reverse the recent changes to the BBFC and Customs guidelines regarding "pornography"?

Two months later, I received this reply:

Videos conforming to the R18 standard applied by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) are not subject to the import prohibition on obscene articles and therefore individuals importing such material would not be in breach of the law and consequently not subject to a serious offence. As a matter of policy Customs does not, and does not intend to apply indecency to material featuring adults. Indecency is applied only to photographs of children and this reflects domestic standards set out in the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

Decisions on obscenity in the UK are made by the Courts and Customs are required to reflect those standards when enforcing the relevant controls.

Sexual acts which are excluded from the BBFC criteria for R18 certification are still considered to be obscene and therefore subject to the prohibition. These include children involved in sexual activity, material featuring rape, bestiality, animal cruelty, excessive violence, anal and vaginal fisting, urolagnia, defaecation, sado-masochism and bondage involving the use of a gag.

The import prohibition on indecent and obscene articles contained in section 42 of the Customs Consolidation Act 1876 does not distinguish between child or adult material. Therefore, it is not possible to confine the serious arrestable offence classification to indecent and obscene material featuring children.

With regards to the Home Office Circular 32/2001, Section 72 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 attracted broad support as it passed through Parliament with the additional powers for customs officers being welcomed by the opposition.

The effect of section 72 is to make the offence of importing or bringing into the United Kingdom indecent or obscene articles a serious arrestable offence by adding it to the list of such offences set out in Schedule 5 to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.

The investigation and detection of paedophile material is treated as a high priority by Customs and Excise and they will conduct a search of the importer's premises wherever possible. These searches often uncover further paedophile material and child abuse and will often identify paedophiles who have previously evaded detection.

In the past, due to the lack of serious arrestable offence status, Customs have experienced difficulties following up detection of paedophile material because this meant that when an importer was arrested for importing paedophile material, there was no legal provision to allow Customs to delay notification of the arrest to another party, creating the possibility that suspect material at the importer's premises was destroyed by an associate before a search was subsequently carried out. There was no difficulty in obtaining search warrants under Section 8 of the PACE when paedophile material is detected in the post or in unaccompanied baggage.

This position was inconsistent with domestic offences: under the Protection of Children Act 1978, it is an offence to take or permit to be taken, distribute, show, possess with a view to distribution any indecent photograph of a child under 16. These offences are scheduled as serious
arrestable offences in the PACE, as are offences under section 2 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959. This minor amendment to improve the powers of Customs Officers is thus consistent with other measures taken to control the circulation of child pornography and other harmful material. Northern Ireland colleagues have also asked that a similar amendment be made to Part II of Schedule 5 of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 at the same time. PACE does not extend to Scotland and that the amendment would not therefore need to be replicated there.

HTH,

fannatastic

Edited by - fannatastic on Oct 19 2001

[Link]