THE chairman of the arts complex at the centre of a "child porn" investigation has defended the actions of staff who called in police.

Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, chairman of the Baltic Centre, in Gateshead, said staff had "behaved extremely responsibly" in alerting police to a potentially pornographic exhibit.

The photograph, by controversial US artist Nan Goldin and from a collection owned by Sir Elton John, was seized by police last week.

Officers from Northumbria Police, in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, are investigating with the photograph Klara and Edda Belly-dancing breaches child pornography laws.

Sir Ian said: "We had an exhibition of 139 photographs and the management of Baltic thought this particular one was possibly beyond the pale.

"So the management took advice from the police as to whether it should be put on display or not.

"That led to a police investigation, which is ongoing.

"When that doubt was raised about this particular one, advice was taken and I think the management behaved extremely responsibly, and did what most people in the public would want them to do."

He also described claims that the Baltic had engineered the high-profile row to boost visitor numbers as "tosh".