The Crown dropped their first test case for using the Obscene Publications Act against writing published overseas on the internet, in alt.sex, by a person domiciled in the UK.
Arrested in February 2008 after being reported by official vigilantes the Internet Watch Foundation and charged that October, Darryn Walker finally faced trial in June 2009 in what Index on Censorship said "would have been a landmark test case" only to find the prosecution offered no evidence and the Judge return a not guilty verdict.
A statement from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "..the prosecution had received a number of expert reports, one of which cast doubt over the accessibility of the article to people searching the Internet and that it could only be found by those determined to find it. The prosecution was unable to provide sufficient evidence to contradict this and so took the decision there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction" thus sparing a jury having to decide if his words would "deprave and corrupt" British readers.
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Index on Censorship