Friday, 16 March 2001
Photographs of nude children featured in an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London are not obscene and do not break the law, the Crown Prosecution Service ruled yesterday.
Photographs of nude children featured in an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London are not obscene and do not break the law, the Crown Prosecution Service ruled yesterday.
Scotland Yard had threatened to seize the photographs after three complaints that the pictures, taken by two photographers, were indecent and would encourage paedophiles.
The case, which won the backing of Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, provoked an outcry over censorship of the arts and freedom of expression. The CPS said no action would be taken against the north London gallery - which is owned by the advertising mogul Charles Saatchi - and the Metropolitan Police said the matter was closed.
A spokeswoman for the CPS, which was sent a file of evidence by the Metropolitan Police's clubs and vice unit, said: "We do not consider that the photographs are indecent." The images, which are part of the exhibition called I Am A Camera, are mainly taken by Tierney Gearon, an artist from the US who lives in London. They feature her two children, Emily, six, and Michael, four. The exhibition is sponsored by the Independent on Sunday.
In one photograph the children are wearing theatrical masks and are standing naked on a beach; in another, Michael is urinating in the snow with his sister in the background.
Ms Gearon said: "My children are my entire life ... and these are beautiful, innocent pictures. You have to understand the context ... which is that I was documenting my family for two years."
A spokesman for the gallery said: "Everyone at the Saatchi Gallery is very relieved as are all the artists in the show. It's been a very worrying time for the two artists involved and their families. We are extremely grateful to the public and press who have supported the artists and the gallery."
The exhibitors were facing prosecution under the 1978 Protection of Children Act, but the crown prosecutors said that the photographs were not considered indecent and that the Saatchi Gallery could successfully use the defence that it had a legitimate reason to show the images because they are considered works of art.
The Act makes it a crime, punishable by up to three years' imprisonment and a fine of up to £10,000, to make indecent photographs of children (anyone under 16) for possession, distribution or show.
A CPS statement said: "In reaching this decision, the CPS considered whether the photographs in question were indecent, and the likely defence of the gallery, ie whether they had a legitimate reason for showing them." Under the current law the definition of indecency is anything that "is likely to offend right-minded people".
The photographs will remain on display until the end of the exhibition on 15 April.
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