Corporate scum : Elish Angiolini
‘Operation Planet’, Edinburgh
On the 24th March 1990 the Edinburgh Police launched ‘Operation Planet’. That police initiative followed the discovery of a 16-year-old boy in a house in the city centre who, over a period of 10 days, had been plied with cannabis and repeatedly sodomised by a number of men. The boy had been on weekend leave from a local children’s home. Evidence uncovered in subsequent police enquiries indicated the men were also engaged in homosexual ‘rent boy’ activities, and were linked to a ‘network’ of older men.
The ‘Operation Planet’ Court Case and Judgments
By the time the ‘Operation Planet’ case was brought before court, a total of 10 men had been arrested, on a total of 57 charges. Those charges related to the taking part in, and the procuring of, acts of sodomy upon the boy contrary to Common Law and the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, the supplying of cannabis to the boy contrary to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and harbouring and concealment of a boy under supervision care contrary to the Social Work Scotland Act 1968.
The pre-trial hearings took place between the 9th and the 11th January 1991. During those hearings it was agreed between the Crown and defence counsels to reduce the 57 indictments to just 10 – allowing five defendants to walk free, and with pleas arranged for the remaining five. Police officers involved in “Operation Planet’ were totally confounded, and extremely angered, by this extraordinary turn of events.
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