'Police hunted gays for sport'

Campaigner demands police and gov't apology

The man who led a Tynwald Day protest against the Island's severe laws on homosexuality has demanded  the criminal record of those with past convictions be removed.

Alan Shea, who demonstrated in 1991, is calling for an apology to members of the gay community who he says were harassed, threatened and blackmailed by the police.

"This should have been done, a long time ago" he said.

Last week, a public consultation was announced into the shake-up of the Sexual Offences Bill.

One of the proposals from the Department of Home Affairs included the pardoning of historical homosexual offences.

Prior to decriminalisation in 1992, acts of consensual homosexuality were seen as crimes under Manx law. 

Mr Shea wrote to the Chief Constable Gary Roberts this year seeking an apology but was told it was a matter for politicians, not the police.

Both UK and Scottish governments, adopted a so-called 'Turing's Law' last year, which saw thousands of gay and bisexual men posthumously pardoned.

Mr Shea likened the plight of the Island's gay community in the 1980s and 90s to the current disdain society has for paedophiles.

In an address he called 'unprecedented' in May when giving evidence to the Knottfield inquiry, the Chief Constable did issue a public apology on behalf of the police.

"I do not ordinarily support the concept of contemporary leaders apologising for failures or shortcomings for how things were done in the distant past.

"I have resisted calls for me to apologise for the fact that the constabulary enforced laws made by Tynwald that made consenting sexual acts between some adults illegal.

"Police officers do not make laws and cannot be criticised for enforcing laws made by a democratically elected parliament." 

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