Representatives for the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art appeared in court yesterday to face charges of offending public decency, the Guardian reports. The suit against the gallery was filed by Emily Mapfuwa, a Christian woman upset by a Terence Koh sculpture of Jesus with an erection.

Mapfuwa lodged a written complaint with Northumbria police earlier this year, asking for an investigation, but was told in May that there was no case. The Christian Legal Centre, an organization whose self-professed aim is to "promote and protest the biblical freedoms of Christian believers in the United Kingdom," came to Mapfuwa's aid by agreeing to pay the legal costs of her suit.

According to a CLC spokesperson, Mapfuwa believes in freedom of expression, but feels "this statue served no other purpose than to offend Christians and to denigrate Christ." The prosecution has charged the Baltic with causing harassment, alarm, and distress to the public. Mapfuwa reportedly intends to cite a 1990 case in which an artist and shop owner were convicted of offending public decency for showing a sculpture made of fetuses.

A lawyer for the Baltic Flour Mills Visual Arts Trust, the charitable organization that runs the Baltic Centre, pleaded not guilty yesterday in court. The case was adjourned until September 23.