A family pub has been criticised for selling pornography from a vending machine in the gents toilets.

DVDs showing group sex and lesbian scenes are available for sale for £6 at the Station Hotel in Hampstead Road, near Preston Park, Brighton.

The law allows toned-down versions of hardcore porn films to be sold in places other than licensed sex shops.

But community leaders today called for the machine to be removed.

City councillor Richard Mallender, who represents Preston Park, said: "For a family pub I don't think it's really appropriate that they should be having this kind of thing."

Councillor Juliet McCaffrey, who lives near the pub, said: "I shall be writing to the licensing committee to see what can be done."

Sister Margaret Mary, of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Surrenden Road, Preston Park, said: "We are horrified and rather disgusted.

"When young people go out to pubs and clubs at the weekend they should not be exposed to this kind of thing."

The graphic DVDs, with titles such as Weapons of Mass Satisfaction and To The Manner Porn, have been given 18 certificates by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) but the most explicit scenes have been removed.

However, the inside covers display images taken from the uncut versions.

The vending machine and films are supplied by London production company Relish.

No one from the company was available for comment.

A sign on the machine warns: "DVDs dispensed from this machine contain scenes of an extreme sexual nature and it is illegal for any person under the age of 18 to buy DVDs from this machine."

The Station Hotel's temporary manager, Boyd Raison, 35, said he expected the DVDs to be popular with the younger customers using the pub at weekends.