BOOKSTORE OWNER LOOKS TO US PORN KING AFTER POLICE RAID

The owner of an alternative bookstore in Fitzroy is seeking the help of the
US porn king Mr Larry Flynt in his fight against censorship laws that
allowed police to seize material from his shop.

Police, customs officers and Office of Film and Literature Classification
officials seized more than $3000 worth of books and videos from the store,
Polyester Books, before Christmas.

The store's owner, Mr Paul Elliott, says he has written to Mr Flynt asking
him to mount a campaign against censorship in Australia, as the Hustler
publisher did in the US.

The Polyester Books store (motto: "Totally Weird Shit") sells books,
magazines and videos devoted to everything from the merely odd to drug
subculture, to what its owner calls "pretty raunchy" sex material.

Mr Elliott says the raid was the first in the store's 12 years of
operation, and he believes police were targeting the drugs-related material
he carries. Most of the seized stock dealt with growing or using marijuana
and other drugs.

Mr Elliott says censorship has always been an issue for him. His imported
films and publications have sometimes been seized by customs before
reaching him.

The search warrant used for the raid referred to parts of the Victorian
classification laws dealing with unclassified, X-rated and refused
classification films and publications, with a maximum penalty of 10 years'
in jail or a $120,000 fine.

"I don't really want to water down the shop," he says. But if police
prosecute him he knows any court battle defending what he sells could
bankrupt his business.

"It would be a losing battle." Hence the appeal to Mr Flynt. "It's a bit of
a long shot, but the laws are wrong.

"You need someone with lots of money to mount a case like that."

Mr Elliott said he suspected something was up when he saw a group of eight
men in suits waiting outside his door at opening time on 22 December.

Then a detective from the Fitzroy police identified himself and showed a
search warrant. The officers spent three and a half hours loading books and
videos into boxes, while customers continued to browse around them.

Among the seized publications were copies of the US magazine High Times,
which deals with marijuana culture, The Marijuana Grower's Guide, The
how-to crime book, The Anarchist Cookbook, an LSD production handbook, and
videos of movies starring '70s porn actor Traci Lords.

He says the officers involved in the raid treated him with "consideration",
but he questions why it happened at all.

He says he was told someone had complained after coming across a
four-year-old catalogue from his store. Nine months ago he put a few
publications behind the counter after a friendly visit from an Office of
Film and Literature Classification officer, but Mr Elliott objects to
suggestions that he should screen off his shop altogether.

Police have not formally interviewed him yet, and he doesn't know what
charges may be laid or how much, if any, of his stock will be returned.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman would only say that the investigation was
continuing. She would not comment on what prompted the raid or whether Mr
Elliott would be
charged.