Pardons for gay men convicted in North over same-sex offences

Stormont Justice Minister Claire Sugden has confirmed a motion will go before the Assembly seeking approval for gay and bisexual men convicted of abolished sex offences in Northern Ireland to be pardoned.

UUP councillor Jeffrey Dudgeon, who was instrumental in the campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in Northern Ireland through the European Court of Human Rights in 1981, welcomed the announcement, describing it as a “great moment”.

“It completes the circle now we have got decriminalisation and effectively an apology for the previous behaviour of the state,” he said. “We hope the Irish Republic will follow suit.”

On Tuesday Ms Sugden announced she had secured Executive agreement to ask the Assembly to pass a Legislative Consent Motion to include provisions in the Policing and Crime Bill for pardons for convictions relating to abolished homosexual offences.

"Pardon arrangements should be brought to Northern Ireland as soon as possible to ensure that there is equal treatment for gay and bisexual men here as for their counterparts in England and Wales, " she said. "This is an opportunity for the criminal justice system to try and right the wrongs of the past and one which will allow for much earlier resolve than that presented by way of an Assembly Bill."

The Bill would provide the same pardon arrangements for Northern Ireland as for England and Wales, allowing pardons, both posthumously and for live cases, in respect of convictions for abolished homosexual offences involving consensual activity with persons over the age of consent, 16.

Mr Dudgeon told The Irish Times he and others had been pressing the Justice Minister to act for months. “Lord Lexden is putting an amendment into the House of Lords hopefully on Wednesday to enable the pardons to come into effect,” he added. “We knew the DUP were not opposed and this is confirmation that the pressure has worked.”

Mr Dudgeon said he was pleased there are men alive today who will be able to benefit from the pardons.

“It is particularly important for people whose reputations were destroyed in years gone by,” he added. “In some cases they died having gone to jail.

“Their characters were damaged and job opportunities seriously curtailed and quite often many men committed suicide rather than go to court.”

Director of the Rainbow Project, John O’Doherty, said the North’s largest LGBT support organisation was “pleased to see these homophobic and discriminatory convictions” were to be quashed.