No Charges Against Bill Henson

Bill Henson will NOT face any charges over his photography of naked girls and boys as young as 12 and 13 years of age.

RIGHT: This is one of the images removed from the Henson Installation at Oxley9 Gallery.


LEFT: Another Bill Henson image which shows a boy and a girl naked.

Reported in The Australian (if this page does not show for you, please see a screen capture of this page located here):


{quote}

NSW police, who last month triggered a storm of controversy by seizing acclaimed artist Bill Henson's photographs of underage girls, will be told today there is insufficient evidence to proceed with obscenity charges.The Australian understands that Crown prosecutors do not believe a case can be made out against Henson under Section 91G of the NSW Crimes Act, which prohibits the use of children for pornographic purposes.

They also consider charges against Henson or the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, which was raided by police, for the "production, dissemination or possession of child pornography" under Section 91H will be too difficult toprove.

The laws attract jail terms of up to 14 years.

It also emerged last night that federal police would not be laying child pornography charges over 79 images by Henson owned by the National Gallery of Australia, none of which are on display.

{/quote}

LEFT: Another of unacceptable images from the Bill Henson nude children collection.

I am sad the law is written in such a way that because of it a case can not be built against Bill Henson. No matter what the arty-farty people what to call it (these hideous images of young children naked, plastered in Galleries around Australia), it is simply unacceptable in my eyes and many others.

Perhaps the law needs to be changed so that IN THE NAME OF ART, children can not be abused and exploited by their parents and photographers.

I would hope that Ms Hetty Johnston will not give up on this issue and lobby for changes to the law.