} ''R v Walker'' was an English

Crown Court The Crown Court is the criminal trial court, court of first instance in England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals of the decisions of magistrates' courts. It is ...

case that was a test of the

Obscene Publications Act 1959 The Obscene Publications Act 1959 ( 7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament, which significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Before the passage of the Act, the law on publis ...

. It was the first such prosecution involving written material in nearly two decades and set a precedent in use of the act to prosecute

web fiction Web fiction is written works of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. A common type of web fiction is the web serial. The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers and magazines. Unlik ...

. In October 2008, the defendant,

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

Darryn Walker was charged with publishing an obscene story contrary to Section 2(1). It appeared on an internet site. A newspaper sparked the prosecution as it involved a

real person fiction Real person fiction or real people fiction (RPF) is a genre of writing similar to fan fiction, but featuring celebrities or other real people. Before the term "real person fiction" (or "real people fiction") came into common usage, fans came up w ...

erotic horror story about the murder of the members of British pop group

Girls Aloud Girls Aloud are a British-Irish pop music, pop girl group that was created through the ITV (TV network), ITV talent show ''Popstars: The Rivals'' in 2002. The line up consisted of members Cheryl (singer), Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, N ...

. The case was abruptly abandoned on its first day and the defendant was cleared of all charges.

Decision to prosecute

The story, entitled "Girls (Scream) Aloud", had been posted from within the

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

of the United Kingdom on a

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

hosted in the United States. Submitted under a pseudonym, the posting included a traceable

email address An email address identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. While early messaging systems used a variety of formats for addressing, today, email addresses follow a set of specific rules originally standardized by the Internet Enginee ...

. Officers from

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...

’s Obscene Publications Unit decided to seek prosecution after consulting the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

(CPS), and on 25 September 2008 it was announced that this would occur for the online publication of material that the police and the CPS believed was obscene. It was the first such prosecution for written material since the landmark obscenity cases of the 1960s and 1970s. Any ruling would affect intended regulation of the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

in the jurisdiction.

Trial

Walker appeared in court on 22 October 2008 to face charges of "publishing an obscene article contrary to Section 2(1) of the

". He was granted unconditional bail; the first day of the trial was organised for 16 March 2009. However, at the procedural preliminaries (directions) hearing in January, the defendant made it known that given the seriousness of the case he would be represented by a QC (

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

), after which the

gave notice of its intention to similarly employ one. The trial was postponed to 29 June 2009.

Outcome

Walker appeared at

Newcastle Crown Court The Newcastle Law Courts is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as a magistrates' court venue, on the Quayside in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. History Until the 1980s, all Crown Court cases were heard in the Moot Ha ...

on that day. The prosecution withdrew its case after hearing evidence from an IT expert. The

(CPS) explained that it had charged Walker as it believed that the story in question could be "easily accessed" by young fans of

. This was because of the definition of obscenity used in the act which requires prosecutors to prove that those exposed to the material were previously unaware of its obscene nature. Those who actively seek out such material are deemed unlikely to be corrupted by it. However, the IT expert showed that the article could only be located by those specifically searching for such material. A spokesperson for the CPS said that the prosecution was unable to provide sufficient evidence to contradict this new evidence and therefore no longer saw a realistic prospect of conviction. }, presiding, directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty to the charge.

References

{{reflist, 30em 2009 in England Trials in England 2009 in United Kingdom case law Internet censorship in the United Kingdom W Internet case law Obscenity case law United Kingdom pornography case law

Decision to prosecute

Trial

Outcome

See also

References