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On 27 November 1835, James Pratt and John Smith were convicted of the crime of “buggery”, and became the last people to be executed in England for committing a truly victimless crime. In 1553, during the reign of Henry VIII, the Parliament of England had enacted “An Acte for the Punishment of the Vice of Buggerie”. Popularly known as the Buggery Act, it made “buggery” punishable with “such pains of death, and the losses and penalties of their goods chattels debts lands tenements and heriditaments as felons may be accustomed to…”. Re-enacted and repealed in between, the Act was reinstated
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