Obscene Publications Act 1964
| Year | 1964 |
Obscene PublicationsAct 1964
1964 CHAPTER 74
An Act to strengthen the law for preventing the publication for gain of obscene matter and the publication of things intended for the production of obscene matter.
[31st July 1964]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Obscene articles intended for publication for gain.
(1) In section 2(1) of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 (under which it is an offence punishable on summary conviction or on indictment to publish an obscene article, whether for gain or not) after the words ‘any person who, whether for gain or not, publishes an obscene article’ there shall be inserted the words ‘or who has an obscene article for publication for gain (whether gain to himself or gain to another)’.
(2) For the purpose of any proceedings for an offence against the said section 2 a person shall be deemed to have an article for publication for gain if with a view to such publication he has the article in his ownership, possession or control.
(3) In proceedings brought against a person under the said section 2 for having an obscene article for publication for gain the following provisions shall apply in place of subsections (5) and (6) of that section, that is to say,—
(a ) he shall not be convicted of that offence if he proves that he had not examined the article and had no reasonable cause to suspect that it was such that his having it would make him liable to be convicted of an offence against that section; and
(b ) the question whether the article is obscene shall be determined by reference to such publication for gain of the article as in the circumstances it may reasonably be inferred he had in contemplation and to any further publication that could reasonably be expected to follow from it, but not to any other publication.
(4) Where articles are seized under section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 (which provides for the seizure and forfeiture of obscene articles kept for publication for gain), and a person is convicted under section 2 of that Act of having them for publication for gain, the court on his conviction shall order the forfeiture of those articles:
Provided that an order made by virtue of this subsection (including an order so made on appeal) shall...
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