Court of Criminal Appeal
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836202600104 |
| Date | 01 January 1962 |
| Published date | 01 January 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court
of
Criminal
Appeal
DISORDERLY HOUSE: STRIP-TEASE CLUB
R. v. Quinn
IN so far as
the
expression "disorderly house" has been
used in Acts of Parliament no statutory definition has been
provided.
The
offence of keeping adisorderly house is an
offence at common law,
but
in none of
the
reported cases before
R. v. Quinn (1961,3 W.L.R.
6II)
does there appear acompre-
hensive definition or statement of what
the
prosecution
must
prove in order to establish
the
charge.
The
judgment of
the
Court
(Ashworth, Paull and Howard,
JJ.)
in this case goes a
long way to remedy this deficiency.
The
appellants, who carried on business as proprietors
of what have come to be called strip-tease clubs, were each
charged with and convicted of keeping adisorderly house.
Their
appeals against conviction were dismissed.
In
some of
the
scenes actresses appeared either completely
nude
or
practically so.
In
some of the scenes
the
indecency involved
was beyond all question serious, according to the evidence of
the
police witnesses, and in some cases revolting.
In
some
previous cases of keeping adisorderly house a prosecution has
been successful as a result of proving
that
persons resorting
to
the
alleged disorderly house were themselves taking part in
illegal practices, for example, R. v.
Higginson
(1762, 2 Burr.
1232, "fighting of cocks, boxing, playing at cudgels and mis-
behaving themselves") and R. v. Berg (1927, 20 Cr. App. R.
38, "purpose of unnatural practices").
It
was argued for
the
appellants in R. v. Quinn
that
the misbehaviour or illegality
on
the
part of persons resorting to the premises was an essential
element in
the
offence of keeping adisorderly house and
that
as the members of
the
club in question and their guests were
respectable people who were merely spectators at
the
per-
formance and committed no indecency themselves, the pre-
mises could not in law be regarded as a disorderly house.
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