COMMON sense has, for once, reined in the lunatic fringe of homophobia.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided not to pursue a case against an Oxford University student who went up to a mounted policeman and suggested that his horse was gay. The horse did not complain, but the police did.

Sam Brown, 21, from Belfast, was out on the town with friends last May celebrating the end of his finals. As is common among the young in such circumstances of euphoric relief, a drink or two had been taken.

Mr Brown, then of Balliol College and now a graduate in English literature, decided to exercise his skill in the English language when he and a group of carousing friends encountered a mounted patrol of the Thames Valley Police in the city’s High Street.

“Excuse me,” Mr Brown ventured to the officer towering above him, “do you realise your horse is gay?”. It seemed a harmless enough, if not rivetingly witty, remark. Moments later, however, Mr Brown was sobered by the appearance of two squad cars. A posse of unmounted officers arrested him and charged him under Section 5 of the Public Order Act for making homophobic remarks.

His remark, it was alleged, was deemed likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. The Act, however, does not make clear whether equine alarm and distress are covered by its provisions, or whether only human beings are likely to be offended.

The police took the view that it was the human beings who could have been harassed. Mr Brown spent a night in the cells and was fined £80, which he refused to pay. So the police took the case to the CPS.

But at Oxford Magistrates’ Court yesterday the Crown prosecutors threw in the towel.

Cariad Eveson-Webb, for the CPS, told the court: “In their opinion there is not enough evidence to prove [Mr Brown’s behaviour] was disorderly.”

Thames Valley Police yesterday defended its decision to take the case to court. “We present the case to the CPS, and they make the decision to proceed or not,” a spokesman said. “He made homophobic comments that were deemed offensive to people passing by.”

The spokesman denied that the police had been heavy-handed, claiming that Mr Brown had been drunk and had made repeated comments about the horse being gay, despite requests from officers to desist.

Matthew Williams, 21 a friend and fellow undergraduate of Mr Brown, witnessed the encounter.

“Sam’s comments were said in jest; it was very clear that they were not homophobic,” Mr Williams said.

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