1957: Homosexuality 'should not be a crime'

A report sponsored by the government has suggested homosexual behaviour between consenting adults should no longer be a criminal offence.

The proposal is the principal and most controversial recommendation put forward by the 13-member committee chaired by Sir John Wolfenden, Vice-Chancellor of Reading University, investigating the current law on homosexuality and prostitution.

The first print of 5,000 copies of the 155-page "Report on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution" - known as the Wolfenden report - sold out within hours of publication.

After its three-year long inquiry, the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution in Great Britain came to the conclusion that outlawing homosexuality impinged upon civil liberties.

'Not the law's business'

It said society and the law should respect "individual freedom of actions in matters of private morality" and stressed it was neither condoning nor condemning homosexual acts.

Ultimately, private morality or immorality was "not the law's business".

It defined "adult" as being a person over the age of 21 and that such acts should be decriminalised only if they took place "in private" and with consent.

Under current law, various homosexual offences can incur anything from a £5 fine to life imprisonment.

Street prostitutes

The committee also made recommendations to "clean up the streets" of London and other major cities of prostitutes by introducing much higher penalties for soliciting.

But the report did acknowledge that by forcing prostitutes off the streets there could be a rise in the number of "call girls" and small ads in newspapers referring to "masseuses, "models" or "companions".

The Wolfenden committee included three women, judges, doctors, MPs, lawyers and ministers of religion.

Only one expressed his reservation on relaxing the law on homosexuality - James Adair, formerly Procurator-General at Glasgow. He believed it would be regarded by many homosexuals as "condoning or licensing licentiousness".