A male prostitute from Finsbury Park who sold DVDs of violent gay pornography has been cleared of publishing obscene material.

Micheal Peacock, 53, of Hatley Road, was cleared of any wrong doing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday (January 9) unanimous jury verdict.

Mr Peacock had been arrested in 2009 after a sting operation in which he sold six DVDs to undercover officers via classified website Craigslist.

Mr Peacock did not appear in any of the films.

During the four day trial, jurors has to watch almost three hours of sadistic pornographic material and decide if the footage would “deprave and corrupt” people likely to watch them.

Myles Jackman, the lawyer representing Mr Peacock, called the case the “most significant in a decade”.

He said: “This could be the final nail in the coffin for the Obscene Publications Act in the digital age because the jury’s verdict shows that normal people view consensual adult pornography as a part of everyday life and are no longer shocked, depraved or corrupted by it.”

He explained some of the graphic acts featured in the DVDs were legal but the representation of them was not.

“The physical act is legal to perform but the representation of it is currently criminalised, so there is an odd disparity,” he said.

Police raiding Mr Peacock’s home also found a cocaine and cannabis resin and he admitted three counts of possession with intent to supply.