An art gallery is being taken to court for displaying a statue of Jesus with an erection.
The sculpture by controversial artist Terence Koh, was part of an exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead.
As well as the Christ sculpture, the exhibition which ran from September 2007 to January this year included other Koh pieces, Mickey Mouse and ET with erections.
A private prosecution has now been launched with legal documents claiming the gallery has both offended public decency and breached Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
The maximum fine for outraging public decency is six months prison and a £5,000 fine. Legal experts say the hearing would be the first test of public decency legislation since the Government scrapped Britain's ancient blasphemy laws in May.
The prosecution has been launched by 40-year-old Emily Mapfuwa, an NHS administrator from Brentwood, Essex. She argues had the statue been of Mohammed rather than Christ, there would have been a far greater outcry.
"I don't think this gallery would insult Muslims in this way, so why Christians?", she asked.
Father Christopher Warren, of the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Mary's in Newcastle upon Tyne, said: "For Christians the image of Jesus is very special and to interpret it in a sexualised way is an affront to what we hold dear."
The Baltic, has been involved in controversy before - police visited in September, about a photography owned by Sir Elton John, of two naked girls, which was later removed.
Koh has also found himself in trouble previously, in 2006 two of his works were withdrawn from an exhibition at the Royal Academy, one of them showing a Virgin Mary with a phallus at a urinal.
The Baltic were unable to comment due to legal proceedings.
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