A Christian woman has today taken an art centre to court over an exhibition which included a statue showing Jesus with an erect penis.

Lawyers for Emily Mapfuwa, from Brentwood in London, will tell Gateshead Magistrates Court that the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art committed an 'act of a lewd and a disgusting nature and outraged public decency contrary to Common Law' by displaying the statue.

They will also argue that visitors who saw it were likely to be 'harassed, alarmed, or distressed'.

The statue, by Chinese artist Terence Koh, was exhibited at the centre from September 2007 to January 2008.

Exhibition managers received complaints from the public over the statue but refused to remove it from the exhibition, saying that signs had been put up warning visitors of the potential offence.

Mrs Mapfuwa, 40, contacted the police earlier in the year to act on the statue's exhibition, but police stated at the end of May that there was no case.

The Christian Legal Centre said it would support Mrs Mapfuwa in her private prosecution.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the Christian Legal Centre said that the CLC and Mrs Mapfuwa believe in freedom of expression, but feel "this statue served no other purpose than to offend Christians and to denigrate Christ".