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Cornwall Gay Club

Chimney Stax – Rainbow Club, Perranporth

 

During the early 1990’s Chimney Stax, Perranporth, a former sports club was opened by ‘Gil & Maggie’ as a gay club, later becoming named the ‘Rainbow Club’. The Rainbow club was also firebombed (Further info please)

 

As a regular attendee & as editor of the local LGBT newsletter it was soon brought to Lidbury’s attention that police cars regularly came into the car park of the gay club & police officers were observed recording car registration plates.  A similar common practise by police had also been carried out at the Op’s room, Portreath (although this was a mixed venue, the gay nights taking place downstairs in the skittle alley).

 

The ICT newsletter (against the wishes of the Perranporth gay club owners) advised its LGBT readership that for their privacy & safety those attending the Rainbow gay club who did not want their vehicle registrations recorded by police as being parked in the gay club carpark, to park in the nearby housing estate & walk across the sports playing field to the gay club.

 

Almost weekly & within several hundred yards, Lidbury on leaving the Perranporth gay club with his partner Andy Smith, would inevitably be pulled over by police for a vehicle check.  Lidbury did not drink & drive, & the gay couples vehicle was lawful & road worthy.  The real difficulty was keeping Lidbury’s partner Andy, (who did like a tipple), in check from expressing himself with verbal vigour regarding the relentlessly homophobic Cornwall police officers.

 

This game of homophobic Cornwall police intimidation ‘cat & mouse’ towards Lidbury as editor of the local Cornwall gay publication went on & off for many weeks duration at a time during the 1990’s (Only to be repeated again in 2004 through to 2007, causing Lidbury to finally cease driving altogether). 

 

In 2005 Perranporth also came under scrutiny around the topics of Naturism & gay men crusing

http://www.natcorn.org.uk/beaches/beaches-north-coast/penhale-sands-holywell-bay-near-perranporth/

 

 A member of BN stated  "Again nakedness is being associated with sexual behaviour, when will people learn not to associate the two?"

The same can be equally said of nudity in Art not being sexual behaviour...a concept even some LGBT orgs like Intercom Trust influenced by homophobic police completely fail to grasp. 

 

NB: 2014 Peranporth made the news again with a police linked gay connection, when the body of a man was found on the beach. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-26953965

 

 

Another Incident of police intimidation

 

Whilst editor of the ICT Lidbury had received a letter from an irrate tourist.  The gist of the letter was the gentleman whilst on holiday in Cornwall with his wife & children had been lying in sandunes on his own whilst observing his wife & children playing at the water edge.  Un-beknown to the tourist, he & his family were in a location at Lelant beach known locally as a gay cruising area.  A gentlenman, who claimed to be a police officer approached the tourist. The police officer had threatened to issue a police caution to the tourist for being a lone male in the sandunes, unless he vacated the beach.  Having explained the situation & pointed out his wife & children, the police officer eventually moved off.. However, the tourist was so incenced by both the rudeness & homophobic prejudice of the Cornwall police officer, on his return from holiday he took the trouble of tracking down & writing too the ICT as a local LGBT publication in Cornwall to inform the ICT of the incident.   

 

Police Sexual Predators

 

Lidbury, whilst ICT editor was also made aware of the practise of a least one Cornwall police officer (by name) in the 1990’s who recorded car registration plates of vehicles seen at known gay ‘cruising & cottaging’ locations in Cornwall.  The police officer then visited the homes of ‘younger’ gay/bi persons whose vehicles had been seen at the various locations.

 

The police officer then allegedlly blackmailed the young gay male drivers into sex.

 

The police officer apparently by his own admission to one male victim who spoke to the ICT, had used the police computer to locate addresses of those frequenting/suspected of attending known Cornwall gay cruising/cottaging haunts.

 

Years later Lidbury (2009) was informed of yet another gay Devon & Cornwall police officer (by name) who relentlessly stalked & pursued a young gay male who frequented cruising spots. The young mans (gay supportive) family threatened to inform the police officer’s superiors of his misconduct unless the police officer stopped sexually pestering their son.

 

Given Devon & Cornwall senior police record on blind  eyeing & failing to deal with police misconduct & police criminality it is most doubtful senior Devon & Cornwall police would have bothered to take any action against the (still serving) sexual predatory Cornwall police officer.

 

The Leverson Inquiry later raised that police computer inappropriate misuse may have been quite widespread in practise within Devon & Cornwall police http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Inquiry-hears-suspected-Devon-Cornwall-police/story-16040057-detail/story.html

 

Next go to - 1994 - 1st CORNWALL LGBT PRIDE? 

 

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