麻豆社

Use 麻豆社.com or the new 麻豆社 App to listen to 麻豆社 podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Episode details

Radio 5 Live,2 mins

British soldier jailed for being gay: It still affects me now

5 Live In Short

Available for over a year

Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephen Fry have been leading a campaign to pardon thousands of men who, like the World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing, were prosecuted for being gay. Steve Close was convicted of gross indecency and given a dishonourable discharge from the army in 1983 after his relationship with a fellow soldier was reported to the Royal Military Police. The conviction is still affecting Mr Close's life, despite a bill in 2003 repealing the offence of gross indecency. He could not get "proper work" due to his conviction and in January 2013 police gave a letter to his mother which asked Mr Close to provide a DNA sample under Operation Nutmeg, a push across England and Wales to collect genetic material from people jailed for serious crimes before 1994. This clip is originally from 5 live Breakfast on Saturday 28 February 2015.

Programme Website
More episodes