The offence of buggery, which has been on the statute books in Northern Ireland since 1861, is no longer a crime in the North.
Belfast High Court judge Mr Justice Kerr ruled that the law dealing with the offence is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. He ruled that the common law offence of buggery had been overtaken by the incorporation of the Convention into domestic law last October.
He was delivering judgment in a judicial review brought on behalf of a man whose lawyers challenged a magistrate's decision to remand him on a buggery charge brought under an 1861 Act. The judge quashed the magistrate's order and said he would give a written judgement later.
Solicitor Sean McCann, who appeared for the man, said the declaration would probably result in men who admitted or were convicted of buggery now seeking to have their convictions quashed.