SIXTEEN men, including a United Nations lawyer, a missile designer and
a lay preacher, have been arrested after a two-year investigation by
Scotland Yard's obscene publications squad.
They face a total of more than 100 charges, including assaults, drug
charges and obscene publications offences, Scotland Yard said.
One of the men is a missile design engineer, who works for British
Aerospace at Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
The men were arrested over the past month following an investigation
called Operation Spanner, which also involved a number of provincial
police forces.
The accused have addresses in Wales, Hereford, Worcester, Shropshire,
Birmingham, Bolton, Cleveland, Suffolk and London.
They have been given bail and will appear at Camberwell Magistrates
Court in London on October 9. Scotland Yard said no more arrests were
expected.
It is understood the investigation, one of the largest by the obscene
publications squad, was launched following an inquiry into advertisments
in homosexual magazines.
Scotland Yard yesterday released the details of the men and charges.
Mr Donald Anderson, 60, a retired pig breeder of Harford, Llanwdra,
Lampeter, Dyfed, Wales, is charged with being concerned with the running
of a disorderly house and buggery of a dog and a donkey.
Mr John Atkinson, 48, an antiques restorer and restaurateur of High
Street, Broadway, Hereford and Worcester, is charged with aiding and
abetting grievous bodily harm on himself.
Mr Anthony Joseph Brown, 54, unemployed, of Heathmere Avenue, Yardley,
Birmingham, is charged with conspiracy to commit assaults.
Mr Graham William Cadman, 52, an ice cream salesman, of Duncan Street,
Horwich, Bolton, faces charges of keeping a disorderly house, conspiracy
to assault and taking and distributing indecent photographs.
Mr Christopher Carter, 37, a fancy dress hire proprietor, of New
Street, Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, is charged with aiding and
abetting keeping a disorderly house and assault.
Mr Peter John Grindley, 41, of Prees Green, Whitchurch, Shropshire, a
care assistant in a home for the mentally handicapped, is charged with
conspiracy to assault and drugs offences.
Mr Albert Groom, 54, a hotel porter, of Balmoral Avenue, Thornaby,
Cleveland, is charged with conspiracy to distribute indecent material
and aiding and abetting an assault.
Mr Roland Jaggard, 42, a missile design engineer with British
Aerospace at Stevenage, of Kneller Road, Welwyn Garden City,
Hertfordshire, is charged with conspiracy to assault and grievous bodily
harm and assault, occasioning actual bodily harm on himself and others.
Mr Paul John Kelly, 23, unemployed, of Makinson Avenue, Horwich,
Bolton, is charged with keeping an unruly house and actual bodily harm.
Mr Colin Laskey, 46, a computer operator, of Llanwern Road,
Pontypridd, mid-Glamorgan, South Wales, faces charges of conspiracy to
assault, running a disorderly house, grievous bodily harm, actual bodily
harm and publication of indecent material.
Mr John Henry Lofthouse, 49, of Cotmer Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, a
fire station officer, is charged with aiding and abetting actual bodily
harm on himself and the theft of a cylinder of nitrous oxide from his
employers.
Mr Saxon Lucas, 57, a restaurateur and lay preacher of Murstow Green,
Evesham, Hereford and Worcester, is charged with grievous bodily harm
and actual bodily harm.
Mr Anthony Oversby, 56, a tattooist, of Gloucester Terrace, Bayswater,
West London, is charged with actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm
and obscene publications offences.
Mr Graham Sharp, 39, a photograpic developer, of Vicarage Road,
Coalpit Heath, Bristol, faces charges involving the distribution of
indecent material.
Mr Ian Wilkinson, 56, a forester of Prees Green, Whitchurch,
Shropshire, is charged with conspiracy to assault, possession of
cannabis and LSD and an offence under the Protection of Children Act.
Mr Christopher Alexander Zimmerli, 51, a lawyer with the United
Nations, of Haverstock Hill, Hampstead, North London, is charged with
actual bodily harm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article