A BOLTON MP says seven Bolton men who face jail after making a gay sex video should not have been prosecuted.

Brian Iddon told the BEN that the group - dubbed the Bolton Seven - should not be imprisoned and has slammed the decision to take them before the courts.

He said: "It wasn't as if the men committed gross indecency in public.

"The film was made in private and had heterosexuals been involved, or probably even lesbians, I don't think they would have been treated in the same vicious way as these men have been treated."

The MP for Bolton South East added that police and the Crown Prosecution Service had been entitled to press charges because of present legislation which makes it an offence for more than two men to have sex in private.

But he described the decision to prosecute as "silly" and said the law dating back to 1967 needed reform.

Mr Iddon has now written a letter of support to the men's solicitor, joining a growing list of campaigners backing their cause.

Bolton and Salford branches of UNISON are calling on Home Secretary Jack Straw to overturn the group's conviction last month for gross indecency.

Bolton branch secretary Rosa Kay said the case typified the prejudice of the judicial system towards homosexuals.

She added: "This conviction only serves to support the interests of bigots in our society and is an attempt to divide gay people from straight people."

Gay Bolton-born actor Sir Ian McKellen has also written to the men's solicitor describing the case as "deeply offensive" and slamming the people who have attacked the men's homes.

And Bolton Institute professor of psychology Ian Parker has attacked the prosecution as "a disgrace" and a "waste of police money".

Other supporters of the group, who face sentencing at Bolton Crown Court on Friday, include gay group Outrage! and humanitarian campaigners Liberty.

Campaigners say the men were consenting adults who made the video in private.

But the Crown Prosecution has said its decision to press charges was in the public interest.

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