Last execution for homosexual acts in England: Pratt and Smith at Newgate

Background. Pratt and Smith were arrested in August 1835 after being observed in a room rented by William Bonill. Their landlord reported frequent male visitors and became suspicious on 29 August. The men were tried at the Central Criminal Court in September before Baron Gurney. They were convicted under the Offences Against the Person Act 1828, which had replaced the earlier Buggery Act.

Execution. Pratt and Smith were sentenced to death by the Recorder of London Charles Law. On 5 November, Charles Dickens visited Newgate Prison and saw the men. They were hanged in front of Newgate Prison on the morning of 27 November. This was the last execution for sodomy in England, although the death penalty for the act remained theoretically possible until 1861.

Aftermath. William Bonill, the landlord who rented the room, was transported to Australia on the ship Asia in November 1835. While no further executions for sodomy occurred after Pratt and Smith, the legal framework allowed for capital punishment until the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 abolished the death penalty for buggery.