Harry Holland, also known as both Colin Nugent and Emu Nugent, is appealing his 2010 conviction of possession of child pornography to the supreme court.
Holland was fined $3000 when police discovered three issues of ‘Rockspider’ magazine in his house in 2010. Holland has reportedly owned the magazines since the mid 1980s.
The publications feature no images of child being abused, but do include stories with description of sex with boys aged between ten and sixteen and illustrations of naked boys.
Holland is appealing the charge on the grounds that the magazines were published during the gay liberation era and were designed to promote discussion of issues such as the age of consent, negotiating legal issues and treatment.
Under WA law written material is included under the definition of child pornography, which is material that depicts a child engaging in sex or a sexual contest “in a way likely to offend a reasonable person.” The law does provide a defence for material that has “recognised literary, artistic, or scientific merit” and that the “act to which the charge relates is justified as being for the public good.”
At the trial last year, Holland attempted to present three expert witnesses attesting to the magazine’s social and historical value , but he was denied by the presiding judge.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo told the supreme court this week that the stories in the magazines are “without any scientific merit whatsoever.”
“It’s not as though they are theories or have some medical value to them, they are simply stories that are child pornography.”
She also said the state will seek to have the magazines destroyed.
Holland’s appeal is being considered by Justices Graeme Murphy, Robert Mazza, and Wayne Martin.
A number of scholars have attested to the scientific value of the magazines, including Graham Willett from the University of Melbourne. He was reported in The Perth Voice as saying:
“However shocking some may find this material, it is of inestimable importance to historians, sociologists and all those interested in understanding our society and its past in all its diversity.
“Clearly no child was harmed or exploited in the production of these images.
“While it is possible that some readers may find some of the stories and images sexually titillating in the context of the magazine as a whole and in the context of the historical and political period, this aspect is simply insignificant to the assessment of the value of the magazines.”
