Murder of Jane Longhurst

During the original murder trial in 2004 and the retrial in 2007, Coutts said that he had a fetish for necks and strangulation. His testimony, confirmed by witnesses, stated he had engaged in breath control play with several consenting partners on many occasions without incident over several years. The Court heard that Coutts had sexually arousing murderous thoughts about women since he was 15, Consultant psychiatrist Larry Culliford testified that he had seen Coutts in 1991, 12 years before the murder, and that Coutts told him that he feared his thoughts might lead to criminal action. The defence claimed that this was evidence that the deceased had engaged in activity with another partner, similar to that claimed by Coutts. Longhurst's boyfriend and a previous lover stated that they had not indulged in erotic asphyxia with her. He visited the storage unit 11 times while the body was there. The Court heard that Coutts hid Longhurst's body for a month and that it was found in secluded woodland after he set it on fire. Pathologists' expert testimony Home Office pathologist Vesna Djurovic testified that Coutts must have been aware of the medical emergency for two to three minutes before death became inevitable. Had Coutts acted on this emergency as soon as he became aware of it, Longhurst would definitely have survived. By continuing to constrict her neck with a ligature long after becoming aware of the emergency, Coutts showed the necessary mens rea for murder. Djurovic said that Longhurst's death could have been from heart attack or vagal inhibition, but in her experience, these were unlikely mechanisms. Djurovic's evidence was contested by defence pathologist, Richard Shepherd, whose expert opinion was that death could have occurred very quickly by vagal inhibition, taking as little as one or two seconds. ==Murder conviction and appeals==

On 4February 2004, after his first trial, Coutts was convicted of Longhurst's murder and began serving a 30-year minimum prison term. He pursued an appeal on multiple grounds, including the issue of manslaughter charges and his minimum prison term, which was brought to the Court of Appeal in December 2004. In January 2005, the Court of Appeal rejected Coutts' appeal against his murder conviction, but upheld that the jury should have been given a possible manslaughter verdict, and reduced his minimum prison term to 26 years. this began on 11June 2007 at the Old Bailey. Coutts was convicted on 4July 2007 by an eleven to one (11:1) majority verdict. The following day, 5July, Coutts was sentenced once again to a life term (serving a minimum of 26years). ==Criminalisation of possession of "extreme pornography"==

The possible link with what the Government termed "extreme pornography" led to calls from Longhurst's mother Liz, the police, MP Martin Salter and Home Secretary David Blunkett to ban such websites. A campaign by the government and Liz Longhurst collected a petition of over 50,000 signatures Unable to shut down the websites, many of which were legally hosted in the UK and US, the Home Office was motivated to consult on criminalising possession of "extreme pornographic material", including images of consenting adults, and staged "realistic depictions" of such acts. Although the consultation found 63% of responses opposed strengthening the law to address the "challenges of the Internet", and SM group Unfettered created a campaign, Backlash, in opposition to such changes. Proponents of the new laws called them a way of protecting women from similar tragedies. Critics said that the reverse may be true, citing evidence from Japan, the United States, Denmark and elsewhere that sexually motivated crime negatively correlates with the availability of pornography, or that such laws could criminalize those who are not violent. On 26January 2009, Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 came into force in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, introducing a new offence of possession of "extreme pornographic images". ==References==