![Civil servant Darryn Walker [right] charged over 'obscene' Girls Aloud blog](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01002/GirlsAloud-Walker_1002598c.jpg)
Darryn Walker, 35, from Newcastle, is being prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, in one of the most significant cases on censorship since the controversy over the DH Lawrence novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Most police inquiries under obscenity laws now involve pornographic images in magazines or on DVDs.
This is the one of the first cases involving the written word in recent years and is expected to be the first test of the law since pornographic material became widely available on the internet.
Mr Walker is accused of posting a comment on a fantasy pornographic website which allegedly described the kidnap, mutilation, rape and murder of Girls Aloud members Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh.
It was headlined "Girls (Scream) Aloud" and is said to have run to the equivalent of 12 pages.
The website has a foreign host but prosecution is possible because the alleged author was said to be a British citizen living in the UK. The action came after the Internet Watch Foundation, a hotline for reporting illegal internet material, was alerted to the article last year.
Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Unit launched an investigation and charged Mr Walker after consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service.
He is due to appear at Newcastle crown court charged with publication of an obscene article in coming weeks.
The 1959 Obscene Publications Act makes it illegal to publish material that tends to deprave and corrupt those reading or viewing it.
The most celebrated case was the 1960 prosecution of Penguin Books over Lady Chatterley's Lover. The jury found Penguin not guilty and within a year the novel had sold more than two million copies.
