One year after she was convicted and fined $3,000 for operating a house of prostitution, Terri-Hean Bedford (a.k.a. Madame de Sade) insists her spanking and fantasy games are neither strictly sexual nor illegal, and the dominatrix hopes the Ontario Court of Appeal gives her a clear yes or no about the question.
Police raided her Thornhill bungalow in 1994, seizing props worth $100,000 and allegedly assaulting her, one basis for her appeal. Bedford maintains her clients - who pay very highly for her services - come for fantasy role playing but not sex. Meanwhile, she is running a new operation - a charm school for transvestites.
The judge had said he was basing Bedford's conviction on evidence suggesting prostitution in her bondage routines, including one involving a client's genitals being bound and massaged. "They haven't told me what I can do in the privacy of my home, whether it's for money or not," Bedford tells Reuters.
If the appeals court rules S&M acts are not sex, it would be the first Canadian court to rule that way. Her conviction had been reversed on an earlier appeal but the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the conviction.
Bedford was scheduled to appear in court March 13.
OBERLIN, OH - Cynthia Stewart is about to discover whether her habit of photographing her daughter's everyday life from the outset equals child porn. She goes on trial in May for taking "lewd photos," since some of the photos involve the child, now 8, rinsing herself off with a detachable shower head in the tub last summer. The 48-year-old school bus driver has been suspended from work while awaiting trial.
Supporters include the American Civil Liberties Union as well as local allies who have rallied several times on her behalf, with others reportedly pitching in $35,000 for her defense.
The local photo lab that processed the film tipped off police. Prosecutors called the photos "porn" and charged Stewart with illegal use of a child in nude material and pandering sexually oriented material. "When I was growing up, we never had pictures taken like that,'' 50-year-old Jean Ruth told the Associated Press. "An 8-year-old should not have her picture taken in the bathtub.''
Stewart faces 16 years in prison if found guilty.
SAN FRANCISCO - Sex Information's company name kind of speaks for itself - and they think they've got a new tack on cybersex. Not exactly how to do it, but the information seekers say they're getting strong response to an option to query through E-mail. They say they're getting up to 30 new inquiries a day since they started offering the option last month. And, according to Wired, those E-queries tend to focus most on young people's experiences having sex for the first time. Overall, including telephone queries, the topics tend to be dominated by sexual dysfunction, anatomy, and sexually-transmitted diseases.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
