James Humphreys (pornographer)

James William Humphreys (7 January 1930 – September 2003) was an English businessman and criminal who owned a chain of adult book shops and strip clubs in London in the 1960s and 1970s.

The severity of his crimes increased over time and, in March 1958, he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment after using explosives to open a safe and steal £8,260 in money and postal orders.

Journalists from The Sunday People found out about the trip, and published details on its front page, along with allegations about the bribery from Humphreys and other pornographers.

He left the UK and set up an illegal amphetamine factory in Ireland, fleeing the country shortly before the premises were raided by the Gardaí.

The character Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell in the 1996 BBC television series Our Friends in the North, was based on Humphreys.

[1][2] He left school at age 14 and began a career of criminality; while still a teenager he became friends with Frankie Fraser, the London gangland enforcer.

Soon afterwards he broke into a sub-post office and blew open a safe to steal £8,260 of money and postal orders;[b] in March 1958 he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment.

[5][9] On his release from Dartmoor Humphreys changed direction professionally and opened a strip club in Old Compton Street, Soho, which was frequented by fellow criminals.

[12][13] To keep the club free of harassment from the police, Humphreys had to pay protection money to Detective Sergeant Harold "Tanky" Challenor.

When the demands for payments continued after Humphreys moved his club to nearby Macclesfield Street, he made a complaint to Scotland Yard; after a short investigation, Challenor was cleared.

The professor of law Colin Manchester considers the rise was because of the permissive society and the more lenient Obscene Publications Act 1959, which was less restrictive than its predecessor.

It was suspected that the South London criminal organisation the Richardson Gang were behind the attack in an attempt to move their extortion business into Soho, but this was never proven.

[24][e] Humphreys appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in July 1966, charged with allowing "unlicensed public music and dancing (striptease)" three times that year; he was fined £450.

[26][f] In 1969 Humphreys used his police contacts against Murray Goldstein, the owner of Maxim's strip club in Frith Street, in an attempt to seize control of the outlet.

Silver arranged for himself, Humphreys and Rusty to dine with Commander Wally Virgo, head of the Metropolitan Police's Serious Crime Squad.

Humphreys was told that Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Moody, the head of the Metropolitan Police's Obscene Publications Branch (OPB),[h] had blocked the opening.

[5][31][l] Humphreys would invite members of the OPB to dinner at some of London's top restaurants—Quo Vadis, SPQR, Le Caprice and the Savoy Hotel—where he would pay for the meal and give each of them a "goodwill payment"; when asked how he knew whether a policeman was amenable to taking bribes, he answered "I've never known one that isn't.

"[15][40] This would include taking out entire police departments: on one occasion Silver, Humphreys and their wives entertained the Flying Squad, paying for the meal at which the senior magistrate in London was also a guest.

This was either by Joey Pyle, a gangland figure angry at having been charged with firearms offences,[45][51] or a member of the Flying Squad who saw a postcard Drury had sent to his colleagues in London.

A journalist flew to Cyprus and was given a copy of the hotel register; the newspaper hired a private investigator who visited the branch of Thomas Cook on Regent Street, where he obtained a duplicate of the receipt, which showed Humphreys had paid for the Drurys' holiday.

[56] They began their article "The head of Scotland Yard's world-famous Flying Squad has just been spending an expensive holiday abroad with one of Britain's most notorious pornographers".

[64][65][n] Mark brought in Detective Chief Superintendent Bert Wickstead, the head of the Serious Crime Squad (SCS), to take action against the pornographers and remove the corrupt officers from the OPB.

[69][o] The SCS began a three-year investigation into the relationship between the OPB and the pornographers; Silver, Humphreys and Eric Mason—the owner of ten sex shops—were the police's key targets.

[15] While corrupt officers were removed from Scotland Yard by Mark's actions, and the SCS were investigating the criminal activity in Soho, the large-scale pornographers left the country.

Humphreys, who had been tipped off that the police had made the connection between himself and the Garfath attack, used a false passport in the name of Leigh and escaped to Rotterdam.

[78][q] More than 40 long tons (41 t) of hardcore publications were seized and 11 people were arrested; one of them was Rusty Humphreys, at the couple's Brook Street residence.

[5] Rusty handed a second of Humphreys's diaries over to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Gilbert Kelland, who was in charge of A10 (Complaints Investigation) Branch.

[5][96][97] He had also written a detailed letter to Deputy Commissioner James Starritt while he was in Amsterdam, and brought back a twelve-page statement he had worked on.

[109] He initially refused to appear in court for the prosecution, but was persuaded to change his mind by a journalist from The Sunday People who told him that his conviction for the attack on Garfath was being investigated.

[123] In the 1996 BBC television series Our Friends in the North the character Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell, was based on Humphreys.