UK to pardon thousands of gay men convicted under abolished laws

PanARMENIAN.Net - Britain is to pardon thousands of gay and bisexual men who were convicted of crimes under sexual offense laws which have now been abolished, following on from the 2013 exoneration of celebrated World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing, Reuters reports.

Homosexual acts were not decriminalized in England until 1967 and it was not until 2001 that the age of consent for homosexuals was reduced to 16, bringing it into line with the law governing heterosexuals.

Lord John Sharkey, who has been pushing the government to issue pardons, said some 65,000 men had been convicted under the now-repealed laws, of which 15,000 were still alive.

The government said anyone who had been found guilty of consensual homosexual sex would have their names cleared, and for those still living, the offences would be removed from any criminal record checks via a "disregard process".

"It is hugely important that we pardon people convicted of historical sexual offences who would be innocent of any crime today," said Justice Minister Sam Gyimah.

The pardon plan has been dubbed "Turing's Law" in reference to the brilliant wartime mathematician who cracked Nazi Germany's "unbreakable" Enigma code, Reuters says.

He was stripped of his job and chemically castrated after being convicted of gross indecency in 1952 for having sex with a man, and killed himself two years later, aged 41.

After years of campaigning by supporters including physicist Stephen Hawking, Turing was granted a rare royal pardon from Queen Elizabeth in 2013.