Articles

Defending the Indefensible?

Phil Badger explores controversial issues at the heart of liberalism.

Last year Steven Freeman was sentenced to an ‘indeterminate’ time in prison for making and distributing indecent drawings of children. It was the first time in UK history that such a case has been prosecuted. What made it distinctive was that it involved drawings of imagined situations rather than photographs of actual ones. This case seems worthy of philosophical investigation.

Let me make it clear from the beginning that I have no agenda which gives any degree of support to people who abuse children.

…