Timeline of LGBT+ History for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire
1972 – Police Target Keele Gay Lib Soc
This post was substantially expanded in Feb 2026 to include material from local press reports and links to the impact on emerging local gay rights groups
Introduction
In 1972 an article in the newly launched national publication “Gay News” reported that over the last eight months police had targeted the Keele Gay Lib Soc as part of a wider campaign against local gay men and that they had been compiling a dossier of all known gays in the potteries. The arrests and convictions also received coverage in our local newspaper, the Evening Sentinel. In this post we explore events from two different perspectives.
Article in Gay News Issue 6 published around 1st September 1972. (Retrieved from The Gay News Archive)
Transcription
THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU
Four Prisoners – Fourteen Charges
Keele Gay Lib Soc established itself early this year, and membership grew rapidly at first. The group soon noticed that the police (CID) began to show some passion for having hurried half pints in the same pub they used prior to meetings. And, coincidentally, they were ostentatiously watching the house of some gays living in the Potteries, also taking youths down to the station for questioning in the absence of solicitors, parents or guardians. It is hard to establish whether threats were actually used on these occasions.
The Gay Lib Soc were informed that the police had been assembling a dossier on all known gays in the Potteries, for the last eight months.
After consultation with the NCCL (National Council for Civil Liberties) a formal complaint was sent to the police and statements forwarded to NCCL. Shortly after this the first person was arrested (on May 31) and remanded in custody. Within about two more weeks, three more people were arrested and also remanded in custody. It is possible that an otherwise growing membership melted away because of these arrests, as the group shrank in size from this time.
The remands (at Risley) continued until about July 17, when they were released on bail – police objections that they would plant bombs, intimidate witnesses, and be the subject of ravenous lynch mobs, suddenly disappeared from the prosecutor’s repertoire.
The four came up for committal on August 7, and are due to appear in the Crown Court in about 2 – 3 months time. Here are the details.
- One person aged about forty is charged with nine out of twenty-six possible charges: three charges of buggery with minors (section 12(1) of the 1956 Sexual Offences Act); five charges of attempted buggery contrary to Common Law; one charge of indecent assault (section 15 of the Sexual Offences Act).
- A second person aged about thirty is charged with buggery with a minor (section 12(i) of the 1956 Act).
- The third (about thirty-five) is charged with attempted buggery and indecent assault.
- The fourth, aged about nineteen, is charged with indecent assault and ‘causing wasteful employment of police time by making a phone call to the effect that there was a bomb in Longton Police Station’. (The latter charge omitted the fact that the police had used this as an excuse to go up into the house the boys were living in, and illegally arrest them.) This boy had been summarily tried on the latter charge, and no sentence was imposed, as his lawyer so abjectly groveled and apologised for his ‘silly act’, etc.
All the four charged have straight-straight solicitors – one solicitor gets most of his bread as the local pig-prosecutor!
What remains of the Gay Lib group has tried to support the accused while on remand, and get together the beginnings of an alternative defence – but it looks like they will get a straight defence in the end – psychiatrists and all.
At least four other arrests have been expected (but this may be police panic-mongering) and the present case seems in some ways like a repeat performance of the 1968 Potteries Purge, which resulted in the murder of one boy (‘suicide according to the coroner) whilst on remand, and the incarceration of three others after dubious police practices (see Sunday Times 17/3/68 – ‘The Disturbing Case of the Consenting Teenagers’, page 2).
These people are still remembered in the local gay community.
Local Press Coverage
The partial decriminalisation of sex between men in 1967 specified that both participants had to be aged over 21 and the act had to take place in private. All other sex between men remained illegal and any public activity that might be interpreted as facilitating meetings between men for sexual purposes would attract police attention.
Looking back at the local news reports corresponding to the events described in the above Gay News article there is no mention of Keele Gay Lib Society being targeted. Events were covered by the local Evening Sentinel newspaper on four occasions:
- 19th Jul 1972 – Four Remanded on Bail
- 8th Aug 1972 – Made bomb call ‘for a joke’
- 9th Aug 1972 – Four sent for trial
- 30th Nov 1972 – Bizarre and disgusting performances – men gaoled
These reports tell us that four men were prosecuted and that the defendants were aged 40, 33, 25 and 19. The allegations involved “boys” with ages ranging from 12 to 19, including references to a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old. One of the defendants was himself aged 19 and therefore below the legal age of consent for sex with another male. He also admitted having made a hoax call to Longton Police station about a bomb which caused the police to have to evacuate the station.
All four men were found guilty. The three oldest defendants received sentences of 6 years, 2½ years and 2 years. The youngest defendant was subject to probation and a fine for court costs.
Articles from the Evening Sentinel – not reproduced in full to preserve the anonymity of the men involved.
The Perspective of the Gay community
The Gay News article reported that Keele Gay Lib Soc had noticed surveillance and believed police were assembling information on ‘known gays’… although court reports in the Evening Sentinel do not identify Keele students as being targeted, the report in Gay News explicitly states that this was the case.
The newly formed Keele Gay Lib Society had been advertising meetings in the local “Evening Sentinel” newspaper. Initially the Gay lib group had met on campus but then meetings moved to a local pub in Stoke allowing other local gay community members to attend. Given the link to students below the legal age of consent it is hardly surprising that the police took an interest.
At this time the gay community was heavily policed and experienced social stigmatisation. There was widespread dissatisfaction with the restrictions imposed by the partial decriminalisation of sex between men. Gay rights campaigners wanted full equality and argued for the rights of gay teenagers.
Did the police really compile a dossier of all known homosexuals or was this an exaggeration created by an oppressed minority?
During this period police investigations were sometimes expanded through “snowballing” – the names taken from the address books diaries and correspondence of one gay man under investigation were used to identify and pursue further gay men. From the perspective of the gay community this might reasonably be described as the police “compiling a dossier of known homosexuals”.
I personally recall a conversation with local gay activist Keith Groom in which he talked about a time when the police were compiling a dossier of all known local homosexuals. Keith recounted that he had presented himself at Longton police station and said that if they were compiling a list of local homosexuals “You had better add me as I am one too”. This direct action at great personal risk was typical of Keith and I have every reason to believe it was a true account. I now understand that it was likely linked to the events in this post about which I knew nothing at the time.
My recollection of Keith’s story helps evidence that the gay community did indeed believe that police were compiling a dossier of all known local homosexuals in the potteries. The Gay News article also refers to an interest taken by the NCCL (National Council for Civil Liberties) which adds further weight to this claim.
Conclusions
The surviving sources show that the same events were interpreted differently depending on viewpoint:
- court and newspaper reports framed the cases as criminal prosecutions involving specific individuals engaged in sex with young boys
- sections of the gay community saw the police action as part of a broader pattern of surveillance and discrimination against young gay men and the gay community more generally.
Some of the offences for which convictions were secured would still be illegal under the law as it stands today. But the police response of compiling a dossier of known local homosexuals and of treating older teenagers as minors, is out of step with the standards we would now expect.
Understanding the two sides to this story helps us to see that while some of the police action was not unreasonable some of it was excessive and understandably perceived by the gay community as persecution. This is a common theme that will continue to persist for more than two decades.
Read More
These events had a significant impact on the local Gay Liberation Society group at Keele University. Read more here…
The police action coincided with efforts to establish a new local CHE (Campaign for Homosexual Equality) group. It is likely that the Evening Sentinel’s refusal to advertise the group was partly influenced by the police investigations into members of Gay Lib Soc going on at this time. Read more here…
Copyright Notice
News clippings in this post were compiled by Andrew Colclough from various archives as part of his personal research into local LGBT+ history and are shared here for educational purposes on the basis of fair personal/non commercial use. Copyright, where applicable, remains with the original publishers. Photographs are believed to be in the public domain and sources are credited where possible – please contact us if any further permissions or acknowledgments are required. All original text is © Andrew Colclough. Thank you!