It is clear enough where Mrs Whitehouse stands - and, indeed Judge King-Hamilton, who 'could not imagine...a more scurrilous profanity'. Most of us, I suppose - Gay News included - are a bit less sure of ourselves. One especially interesting feature of this case was how united the observers - and in particular the press - were against the prosecution, and in particular against Mr John Smyth's conduct of the case.
Of course the press benches are parti pris where the freedom of the press is in question. One of our heroes is Clarence Darrow; one of our texts the Scopes case, when he defended a teacher accused of corrupting children's minds with the Darwinian theory of evolution. This case, though, involved Christianity, homosexuality, and obscenity. It was a perfect trio for the prosecution, who could imply, though not state, that the defendants were not just blasphemers but filthy-minded deviants as well. But not one of us, from an extreme disbeliever to a devout Catholic, welcomed the verdict. As far as we were concerned, the prosecution had, at the least, deliberately introduced irrelevancies to discredit the character of the paper.
English journalist
Corinna Jane Adam (31 January 1937 – 8 March 2012), also known by her married name Corinna Ascherson, was a British journalist, particularly for the New Statesman, The Guardian, and The Observer. According to her obituary in The Times, Adam was "admired for her shrewd and well-observed reporting on a wide range of subjects, not least of court cases relating to questions of freedom of expression and human rights."
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Alternative Names:
Corinna Jane Adam
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Corinna Ascherson
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Sheila Aitkenhead is 38, has four children, and is consumed by various cancers. She is unbelievably pretty and healthy and sensible. When would she like to kill herself? "The point at which I simply represent distress." Her children had been told.
I wanted dreadfully, interferingly, to know what they thought about it. But we weren't told; oddly, it is all supposed to be so open.