John Clarkson - seen here in the top right hand corner of Metrogay - was sent to prison for consensual gay sex at a time when the law was very different from today.

The local journalist Ray Gosling wrote the following:

John had had a run in previously with the police. They had tried to do him for a burglary and failed. Egg on PC Plods face. The Bill was determined to have John. They watched his flat. Sussed it, and kicked his door in at 7am. Off in the van.    And the sheets to forensic. I remember Nottingham Assize, the old court on High Pavement. The thin bed sheet held by the ushers. Learned QC pointing with a stick to the stains. The jar of Nivea was passed along the jury. "Notice the pubic hair." He got three years.

A short Youtube video telling the story of the trial has been assembled - see below

In 1980, John (picture right in 1985) was prosecuted for "insulting behaviour, whereby a breach of the peace was likely to be occasioned" - the peace was potentially breached in a public lavatory on the Embankment.

He was acquitted after a successful defence by Adrian Fulford, who is now a judge and perhaps the only "out" judge in the country.

In the late 1970s John was a significant figure in Nottingham CHE and in the 1980s was the Coordinator of Nottingham Switchboard for several years. When Switchboard had a minor financial crisis in 1984, John raised money by a sponsored slim. John died in 1996.