Derek Cohen, secretary of the Spanner Trust, has been a leading light and inspiration in the UK SM community for over 25 years. He has been a selfless and tireless volunteer on many social and political groups during times when the community has been under heavy attack from the state. In 1981 he set up the social and educational organisation SM Gays, which he led for over 15 years.

Cohen also helped organise the Dungeon in the Sky events, which brought together SM political organisations, businesses and activists of all persuasions in an open environment for the first time. At one of these events in 1991, Cohen was among a group of individuals who helped establish the Countdown on Spanner political campaign, which lobbied against the criminalisation of SM activities in light of the Spanner judgements (1987). Supported by UK human rights organisation Liberty, Cohen was one of the five people who took an unsuccessful class appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in 1996.

Cohen has served on the organising committee of the Spanner Trust ever since its establishment, continuing to defend the rights of sadomasochists of all sexual orientations and to lobby for a change in the law.  Here, Derek talks to demolitionred about his hopes for the future.

How long have you been a Trustee and how did you get involved?

In 1981 I founded an organisation called SM Gays which is a social and educational organisation still meeting twice a month in London. In 1991 we became aware of the "Spanner" trials. This caused some panic within the gay SM community. Fortunately two of the lawyers involved in the Spanner trials were friends and advisers to SM Gays and they helped us formulate a clear information sheet about the implications of the ruling.

At SM Gays annual day school not long after, I encouraged a number of people to set up a campaign around Spanner and this is how the original Countdown on Spanner campaign started.

I was on the panel of the first meeting alongside people like Angela Mason (then heading up Stonewall) and Lisa Power. When the Spanner appeal went to Europe in 1996 it was important to show that the ruling affected a wider range of people than gay men. So Liberty supported five people of different backgrounds and sexualities to appeal alongside Colin Laskey, Roland Jaggard and Tony Brown.

The European Court rejected our appeal on the basis that it did not think we were at risk of prosecution. Soon afterwards I resigned as an SM Gays organiser (15 years is enough) and became a Spanner Trustee which I still am.

Are you more optimistic now than when you first signed up?

If those prosecuting SM in the Spanner case thought it would drive SM underground they were in for a big disappointment. The campaigning by groups like SM Gays and Countdown on Spanner put SM in the mainstream press. And thousands if not millions of isolated SM people realised they were not alone. More than this, here were people standing up being proud of their SM sexuality.

So I'm optimistic in the sense that repression nearly always backfires and the support for organisations like Backlash shows that if you stand up and fight people will join you in whatever way they feel able.

Where I'm pessimistic is on two fronts. Firstly, despite having a Human Rights Act, nearly all the legal equalities we have achieved have been because the government has been forced to by Europe. I'm a great supporter of Labour but it has proved itself as moralistic as its predecessor. The current proposals to outlaw possession of certain types of pornography is just the latest example.

Secondly, while there have been few cases of people being successfully prosecuted for assault relating to SM activities, SM-inclined people are being threatened in many other ways: child custody, employment, disorderly house investigations etc.

Given there are few-- if any -- raids these days does the Trust still have a role in the scene?

As I mentioned above, people are still being threatened because of their SM activity. The Trust is regularly contacted by people being investigated by the police for activities with an SM element. The good news is that club owners and individuals are much more aware of their rights than 15 years ago. But not everyone is. People still keep (and often make public) photos and videos of their own SM activities which result in injuries which, though consensual, are nonetheless currently illegal.

So we have to keep pressing home the message that many SM activities are illegal, the law hasn't changed, it doesn't just apply to gay men and there is still work to be done.

According to the Spanner website, you want to make an appeal based on the incorporation of the Human Rights act into UK law. Are you worried by recent debate suggesting this decision might be reversed?

The debate was about changing or repealing the UK Human Rights Act. Even if it were repealed, then the government would still be bound by the European Convention on Human Rights and we would be able to appeal to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

It's been a busy year for the Spanner Trust. Can you tell us what you've been up to?

We have spent a lot of time working with Backlash on the fighting the possession of extreme pornography proposal. Defeating that proposal won't make it easier to change the law on consensual injuries. But if it is passed it make it much harder because it would set a very recent precedent that it is OK for parliament to control the activities of adults where no harm is done.

We have also given talks about Spanner to groups in the UK and the USA to raise awareness of the law and our work. We're also working hard on fundraising.

What have been your greatest successes as a Trustee? disappointments?

Perhaps the most encouraging thing is that groups like the Spanner Trust are acknowledged by statutory bodies as people with expertise and a valid viewpoint that needs to be considered. We've held a series of educational talks with the examiners at the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) which resulted for the first time in consent being one of the criteria for whether SM videos and films should be given a certificate.

Both the Home Office and the Scottish Home Office actively sought our views on the extreme pornography proposal and we now have an ongoing dialogue with both of them which we hope can evolve into one concerning the original Spanner ruling.

I have two serious disappointments.  In the 1990s, the Law Commission proposed that consent should be a defence to a charge of assault. Its consultations were eventually put on the back burner.

Secondly the Sexual Offences Act 2003 was an ideal opportunity to bring all UK laws relating to consensual adult sexual activity into the 21st century. SM activities were explicitly excluded despite the Spanner Trust lobbying members of both houses of parliament quite heavily and the supporting opinion of a leading human rights lawyer.

The scene seems to have erupted in the last few years, what effect is that having on your work at the Trust?

The explosive growth of BDSM clubs, groups and events shows that SM is not being driven underground and that even the extreme porn proposals have angered rather than cowed people. It means more people are aware of us and more people are asking us for legal advice. We need more SM-friendly lawyers to work with us!

If people want to help, what should they do?

Firstly they should visit our web site (www.spannertrust.org) to find out more. We need more helpers to do fundraising, do web site design, give legal advice, more people to staff stalls at fairs etc. And they could ideally give us some money! Donations can be made via PayPal on our web site. www.spannertrust.org/donations

Also we need people willing to be claimants in our legal challenge. We need SM practitioners willing to make a statement about how the current law affects their sexual activities and breaches their human rights. We've been advised to get people in stable relationships if possible. We have been told they can remain anonymous in the court documents but we can't guarantee that the press won't find out. Details can be found at: http://www.spannertrust.org/

How much money do you need to raise and why is it so much?

We need to raise £250,000, a staggering amount that says more about the cost of government lawyers than the complexity of our case (which is a simple matter of human rights). We plan to take the government to the High Court to challenge the original Spanner ruling. Whether we win or lose there, it is likely to be appealed to the House of Lords. We need money to cover not only our own legal costs but the governments, should we lose. There's an awful lot of lawyer time involved in both stages. Our case is bound to stand a better chance if we use the best human rights lawyer in the UK. And pitted against him, it's likely that the government will roll out their best (and probably most expensive) lawyers too.

You can make a donation to the Spanner Trust at: www.spannertrust.org/donations __________________________________________________