Attempted sodomy
Attempted sodomy was a charge sometimes brought against men suspected of homosexual acts, given that sodomy itself was difficut to prove. Attempted sodomy was re-classified as an "infamous crime" under the Threatening Letters Act 1825 which dealt with blackmail.[1]
Men convicted of attempted sodomy included the painter Simeon Solomon in 1873.
After the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, the new and more all-embracing offence of "gross indecency" could be used instead.
References
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- ↑ Charles Upchurch, Before Wilde: Sex Between Men in Britain's Age of Reform, University of California Press, 2009.