What the butler saw

The late 1800s were paradoxical times. While the Victorians would prudishly drape the piano legs to prevent any unbecoming thoughts, sordid affairs were commonplace and many newspaper scandals shocked late 19th century society.

An indiscreet butler in the household of Sir Charles Dilke could give a lewd account of his master's sexual appetites. Irish peace talks were scuppered as a result of Charles Stewart Parnell's affair with Mrs O'Shea, and it was reported that Soho brothel keeper, Mrs Theresa Berkley, made £10,000 in eight years from a certain sado-masochistic flogging machine known

as the 'Berkley horse'. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for homosexuality, and even the innocent story of Alice in Wonderland was inspired by the Rev Charles Dodgson's paedophilic attraction to Alice Liddell '“ to whom he proposed marriage when she was aged 11.

In the 1860s, prostitution had become a major social problem because it caused widespread venereal and contagious disease. Strangely, Victorian vice law did not punish men paying for sex '“ it was accepted by the legislature that British soldiers and sailors needed prostitutes, so the Contagious Diseases Acts actually penalised women. The statutes of 1864-69 gave the police powers to arrest any woman within the certain radius of a garrison. This meant that innocent women and girls were rounded up with common prostitutes.

The law of habeas corpus had been suspended so women refusing an intrusive medical examination could be imprisoned indefinitely. As a result of vigorous campaigning, the Contagious Diseases Acts were finally repealed by section 2 of the Contagious Diseases Acts Repeal Act, 1886, 49 Vict.

During the campaign, the greatest opponent to the CD Acts, Josephine Butler, wrote: 'By this law, a crime has been created in order that it may be severely punished, but observe, that has been ruled to be a crime in women, which is not to be a crime in men.' However, by 1885, parliament had already softened its hard line attitude to the female gender and an Act was passed to actually make provision for the protection of women and girls and to suppress brothels.

Section 2 of part I of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 imposed a two-year sentence on anyone procuring women or girls for prostitution. Any person convicted of defilement of a girl under 13 years of age could get life, but, if a boy under the age of 16 committed the offence, section 4 of the Act permitted the judge to order him to be whipped instead of imprisonment.

The new Act provided summary proceedings against brothel keepers like Mrs Berkley '“ a £20 fine or up to three months' imprisonment (with or without hard labour) on first conviction, rising to £40 or four months on a second conviction. As to the aforementioned Oscar Wilde, he was charged under section 11 of this new Act (the offence of outraging decency) and given the maximum sentence of two years with hard labour. He was released from prison a broken man and died towards the end of the Victorian era at the age of 46.

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