Civil servant prosecuted over Girls Aloud 'murder blog'
Man prosecuted over blog which depicted murder of Girls Aloud
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Friday, 03, Oct 2008 09:22
A 35-year-old man is being prosecuted over an online blog in which he allegedly depicted the rape, murder and mutilation of pop band Girls Aloud.
Darryn Walker, a civil servant from South Shields, is accused of writing and uploading a 12-page story entitled 'Girls (Scream) Aloud' to a fantasy porn website.
He was arrested by Scotland Yard officers after the Internet Watch Foundation - a regulator which monitors potentially obscene material online - alerted police.
Walker has been charged under the Obscene Publications Act - the same legislation under which Penguin Books were prosecuted over the publication of DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover - and will appear at Newcastle crown court on October 22nd.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman told Sky News that Walker's prosecution was atypical for obscenity laws.
"The vast majority of prosecutions brought under the Obscene Publications Act have related to images; be they photographs, be they computer-generated images, or videos," she explained.
"It is very unusual to be prosecuted for a case involving the written word.
"The test is whether the material is likely to deprave or corrupt those reading or viewing it."
Walker is alleged to have written the article, which describes the kidnap, torture and killing of the group, either on or before August 7th last year.