Extreme pornography

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/26/005082/A

Version Date: 23/09/2026

The Performance Analysis Department has provided the following information:

For the last five calendar years (2021 - 2025) and for 2026 to date (1 Jan - 31 Aug), please provide the following information in relation to offences recorded under offence codes 8605 and 8612 (possession of extreme pornographic images).
To identify relevant records, please search any MO text, occurrence summary, crime summary, investigation log, or equivalent free-text field for the terms:
• strangulation
• strangling
• strangle
• strangled
• choking
• choked
• choke
• chokehold
• suffocation
• suffocating
• suffocate
• suffocated
• asphyxiation

For records identified by that search, please provide:
1. The number of matching offences by year;
2. The number that resulted in:
a. an arrest; and
b. a charge.
For the cases recorded in 2026, please provide an anonymised summary of the incident.

Clarification: rather than searching specifically in the offence codes 8605 and 8612, please make a wider search under Home Office category "86 Obscene Publications". I understand there are additional offence codes under which offences involving strangulation-related content could be recorded.

Data Source:

Crime Information system – Niche

Data Processing:

Applied a filter to search for ‘086’ HO Codes only, then searched for the keywords listed above.

Please note that multiple attempts to apply the keywords before applying the HO filter failed due to the amount of data within the timeframe.

Data:

A total of 1791 offences were found using the 086 HO code, however none of the specific keywords were found. This is a Nil return.