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Which bear was caught up in the longest ever obscenity trial at the Old Bailey?




Excerpt from 'Strange Days Indeed' by Francis Wheen (pg. 106/107):

"On the morning of 22 June 1971, Detective Sergeant Wright and PC Chamberlain of the Metropolitan Police Obscene Publications Squad arrived at the central London office of two underground newspapers, IT and Nasty Tales, armed with a search warrant and – as IT later reported – “an insatiable appetite for all things unusual”. They removed 275 copies of the first issue of Nasty Tales, plus a few ITs and some bootleg albums.

Unable to produce a single schoolchild who had been depraved or corrupted by the magazine, the prosecutor subjected every article and drawing to intense critical scrutiny in his search for someone – anyone – who could be said to have suffered from what might otherwise seem to be a victimless crime. A victim was found: Rupert Bear, whose innocent adventures had appeared in the Daily Express for as long as anyone could remember. Three full weeks were spent studying the cartoon montage in which his head had been superimposed on to a comic strip by the underground American artist Robert Crumb. “What do you suppose is the effect intended to be of equipping Rupert Bear with such a large-sized organ?” Leary asked Edward de Bono, one of the defence witnesses. “I don’t know enough about bears to know their exact proportions,” de Bono replied."

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