MP calls for violent porn ban

Coutts had claimed Jane died during consensual sex

An MP is to call for greater control on violent internet porn sites, following the murder of Brighton teacher Jane Longhurst.

Graham Coutts killed the teacher to "satisfy a bizarre and macabre fantasy" after spending hours viewing images of women being strangled and raped, Lewes Crown Court decided last week.

After he was jailed for life, Jane's mother Liz, from Reading, called for the sites to be banned.

Now her MP, Martin Salter, is to table a Parliamentary Early Day Motion on Monday on the subject, and hopes to get at least 100 MP's to support a ban.

After the verdict, Mrs Longhurst, 72, said: "I feel pressure should be brought to bear on internet service providers to close down or filter out these pornographic sites, so that people like Jane's killer may no longer feed their sick imaginations and do harm to others."

Mr Salter has arranged for Jane's family to meet David Blunkett

Martin Salter, Labour MP for Reading West, has also arranged for Miss Longhurst's family to meet Home Secretary David Blunkett, to discuss ways to limit access to violent porn sites.

Graham Coutts, 35, of Waterloo Street, Hove, had denied murdering Jane Longhurst, 31, in March last year.

But the jury ruled Coutts strangled Miss Longhurst for his own sexual gratification.

Unusual step

Evidence produced during the trial showed Coutts had spent hours viewing violent images before and after killing Miss Longhurst, and again before dumping her body on 19 April.

Coutts said he had been using the internet to look for images involving asphyxial sex and strangling for about eight years.

Jane Longhurst's partner, Malcolm Sentance, and one of the jurors in the case, John Sawyer, also spoke out after the trial.

Mr Sawyer said he had taken the unusual step of speaking out against internet pornography after hearing evidence in the murder trial.

He said: "I've got five daughters and a granddaughter and I just don't want them being another Jane.

"It's got to be possible to ban it.

"Yes, the police are going to struggle because these websites come from all over the world but it has got to be possible, whether it's the provider who is the one who is responsible or what.

"They've got to be able to do something about it."