Male Persons Soliciting or Importuning for Immoral Purposes
| Published date | 01 January 1949 |
| Date | 01 January 1949 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X4902200109 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
MALE
PERSONS
SOLICITING
OR
IMPORTUNING
57
language could be heard in the street, the neighbouring inhabitants
must have been annoyed by it.
It
is certainly some authority for
arguing that, so far as section 28 is concerned, it is sufficient for con-
viction if the only person who claims to be annoyed is a policeman in
his capacity as a passenger in the street. One may arrive at a similar
conclusion by independent reasoning. A Liverpool policeman off
duty in a Birmingham street is a passenger in that street
just
like any
private citizen of Birmingham, and is entitled to the protection of the
sanctions imposed by section 28 if he is annoyed by the singing of
obscene ballads, obstructed by casks,
tubs
or buckets or endangered
by unmuzzled ferocious dogs. Likewise, as a resident in his Liverpool
street, he is entitled to the same protection when off duty in his home.
It
would be a strange argument to say that, when he is on duty in his
own or any other Liverpool street, he can be annoyed, obstructed or
endangered, so far as section 28 is concerned, with impunity, and that,
to get a conviction, he must bring some private passenger or resident
to the scene to listen to the obscene ballad or to be chased by ferocious
dogs.
It
is submitted that, provided he shows himself to be a passenger
and the magistrates are satisfied that he was genuinely annoyed,
importuning a policeman is an offence
just
as if he were a private
person. But the magistrates in fact might well hesitate long before
accepting the evidence of a policeman patrolling astreet known to be
frequented by prostitutes that he was ' genuinely' annoyed when one
solicited him, a fortiori, if he was patrolling it for the express purpose
of catching prostitutes.
In
Shaw's Evidence in Criminal
Cases,
3rd Edition, there is dis-
cussed at page 90 the evidential value of complaints made by persons
solicited in the presence of the prostitute after her arrest, and it is
stated that such complaints should be taken into consideration only
in so far as the woman has admitted their
truth
by her conduct or
demeanour.
An alien woman convicted of importuning under section 28 may
be recommended for deportation (Aliens Order, 1920, Art. 12).
G. S.
WILKINSON.
Male Persons Soliciting or Importuning
for Immoral Purposes
" Experience is the best of schoolmasters, only the school fees are
heavy."-CARLYLE.
THE detection and suppression of homosexuality and sexual
inversion in males is not the task of every police officer, in fact
many complete their service without having dealt with a case. Many
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