Threat to church phone masts 'that relay porn'

The Church of England is facing an embarrassing test case over whether mobile phone masts on steeples are illegal because they can relay pornography.

The church's highest court is to hear an appeal after a diocesan judge ruled that churches were "wrong in law" to "facilitate the transmission of pornography, even in a slight or modest way".

Many parishes have cashed in on the mobile phone boom by charging telecom companies thousands of pounds a year to put antennae on their towers or steeples.

They were encouraged by official Church guidance, which acknowledged that immoral material can be transmitted by the new technology but argued that any "ill" was outweighed by the benefits.

However, critics said mobile phones can now transmit dangerously obscene internet images and the church should dissociate itself from such technology.