The longest obscenity trial in English legal history was that of the Oz magazine under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act. The proceedings lasted for nearly six weeks in the hot summer of 1971.

It was also the first major obscenity trial which produced a guilty verdict since pre-Lady Chatterley days (1960). The trial was a remarkable affair with Judge Argyle able to make remarks such as "so-called defence experts" - in fact the experts including such people as Michael Schofield, Lecturer in Psychology, and Caroline Coon, director of "Release."