Campaigners have called for tighter restrictions on pornography after a “horrific attack” on a woman by a porn-obsessed teenager.
Charlie Pearce, 17, bludgeoned and raped a woman on his seventeenth birthday, leaving her in a medically-induced coma for two weeks.
In the weeks leading up to the attack he had searched for internet videos depicting the rape of “helpless” women.
‘Real world risks’
Adjourning sentence until a later date, judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said: “In view of the gravity of your crimes, you can expect a lengthy sentence.”
Commenting on the attack, Joshua May, a spokesman for the Women’s Equality Party, said:
“The prosecutor’s comments show the real-world risks associated with pornography that dehumanises and objectifies women.”
Rethink needed
“Free porn has incentivised the proliferation of ever more violent and extreme content which, once it has hooked its audience, allows producers to protect their revenue streams. Increasingly, that audience is young boys.”
Sarah Green, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, also spoke out, saying:
“The evidence about the offender’s searches for online porn before the attack tell us that we urgently need public discussion about the contents of contemporary online pornography, its accessibility and what is known about the way it influences those who use it.”
Restrictions
In September, a well-known writer and director called for pornography to be restricted on the internet in the same way as it is in the shops.
Armando Iannucci OBE, the man behind The Day Today, Alan Partridge and The Thick of It, believes big digital companies like Google should have the same responsibilities as retailers.
Iannucci called on regulators to impose greater restrictions on web giants, adding: “We have porn freely available on the internet, but not in supermarkets, so what’s wrong with restricting it?”