... essence of SM, and in doing so, proved itself wholly incapable of maintaining a face of justice. After outlining the events of Operation Spanner, I will examine the major points thrown up during the trials and appeals, and then follow by examining the strengths and weaknesses of these arguments against the acceptability of SM. I will be arguing that the Spanner prosecutions show the laws inadequacy to deal with these issues. OPERATION SPANNER "The Spanner judgement may not be the most absurd in the annals of British law, but it will take a lot to beat it..." (Thompson, 1994: p.234)2. Operation Spanner began when police in Bolton 'stumbled upon' video tapes of a number of men involved in SM activities. Believing at first that these were 'snuff movies' the police mounted a £500,000 operation based on the digging up of various gardens in the area to search for the bodies ...

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