Published: 26 January, 2012
by JOHN GULLIVER

SHOULD the playwright Joe Orton have been cruelly slung into Pentonville jail for stealing and defacing library books?

Or were he and his lover Kenneth Halliwell sent down because they were homosexuals?

All in the dim past, in the 1960s, but an extraordinary “retrial” is to take place tomorrow evening (Friday) at the Islington Museum with solicitor Sandra Paul, from the Euston firm of solicitors, Hodge, Jones and Allen, appearing for Orton and Halliwell.

She will appear in front of deputy district judge Nigel Richardson, also attached to the same firm. Archway-based Human Rights lawyer Greg Foxsmith, who is organising the event, said: “My question is: Did the two men deserve to go to prison? Or were they sent down by the judge – as Orton always believed – because they were homosexual?” Both Orton and Halliwell, who lived in Angel, Islington, stole books from local libraries and defaced the covers.

• Islington Museum, under Finsbury Library, 245 St John Street, EC1,  020 7527 2837. Starts 6.30pm. Admission free.