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'''''Whitehouse v Lemon''''' is a 1977 court case involving the [[blasphemy law in the United Kingdom]].
== Facts ==
[[James Kirkup]]'s poem ''[[The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name|The Love that Dares to Speak its Name]]'' was published in the 3 June 1976 issue of ''[[Gay News]]''. The poem, written from the viewpoint of a Roman centurion, graphically describes him having sex with [[Jesus]] after his crucifixion, and also claims that Jesus had had sex with numerous disciples, guards, and even [[Pontius Pilate]].
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The Gay News Fighting Fund was set up in December 1976. Judge [[Alan King-Hamilton]] [[Queen's Counsel|QC]] heard the trial at the [[Old Bailey]] on 4 July 1977, with [[John Mortimer|John Mortimer QC]] and [[Geoffrey Robertson|Geoffrey Robertson QC]] representing the accused and <!-- Not a QC until 1979. -->[[John Smyth (barrister)|John Smyth]] representing Mary Whitehouse. On Monday 11 July, the jury found both defendants guilty. Gay News Ltd was fined £1,000. Denis Lemon was fined £500 and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment suspended. It had been "touch and go", said the judge, whether he would actually send Denis Lemon to jail.
Mary Whitehouse's costs of £7,763 were ordered to be paid four-fifths by Gay News Ltd and one-fifth by Lemon. Gay News Ltd and Denis Lemon appealed against conviction and sentence. On 17 March 1978, the Court of Appeal quashed Denis Lemon's suspended prison sentence but upheld the convictions on the basis that the law of blasphemy had been developed before ''[[mens rea]]'', literally, a "guilty mind", became an essential element of a crime. ''Gay News'' readers voted by a majority of 20 to 1 in favour of appealing to the [[House of Lords]]. The [[Law Lord]]s heard the appeal against conviction and delivered their
At issue was whether or not the offence of blasphemous libel required specific intent of committing such a blasphemy. By a majority of 3 to 2, the Lords concluded that intention was not required. [[Lord Scarman]] was of the opinion that blasphemy laws should cover all religions and not just Christianity and sought [[strict liability]] for those who "cause grave offence to the religious feelings of some of their fellow citizens or are such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely to read them".<ref>R v Lemon [1979] AC 617, 664</ref> The appeal was lost.
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The [[European Commission of Human Rights]] declared the case inadmissible to be heard by the [[European Court of Human Rights]] on 7 May 1982. The £26,435 raised by the Gay News Fighting Fund through benefits and donations from the gay community and others, including a £500 donation from [[Monty Python]], was sufficient to cover the costs of the trial and appeals.
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