By Ciaran McGuigan

INFAMOUS porn baron Larry Flynt may bankroll legal action against Belfast City Council's refusal to grant sex-shop licences.

The publisher of sleazy magazine Hustler is a high-profile campaigner for freedom of speech.

And, he has indicated that he will back the cause of Belfast sex shop owners, who are already resigned to at least a High Court action against the council.

Flynt's rise, to become the unlikely champion of the First Amendment in the US, was captured in Oliver Stone's account of his numerous court battles.

And now Flynt, played on-screen by Holywood star Woody Harrelson, has told Ulster's own King of Sleaze, Frank Young, that he would give financial backing to the local legal fight to allow sex shop owners to operate within the law.

Mr Young - whose son Damien is a director of Sharman Enterprises - met Flynt in Europe recently, and the porn baron-turned freedom campaigner indicated that he would be happy to underwrite a legal fight all the way to the European Courts.

If two licence applications made by Sharman Enterprises - and a further four by other sex shop owners - are finally rejected by the city fathers later this year, an appeal for leave for a judicial review will be launched.

Lawyers acting for Belfast's sex shops believe they have a raft of legal points, concerning the council's licensing procedures, upon which to base an appeal for leave for a judicial review.

And, if the council loses a court battle, it will be the ratepayers left to foot a £20,000 legal bill.

A behind-closed-doors hearing for the six applications was adjourned last week by the council, after a number of objections against two of the applications were heard by members.

However, according to an internal council document, seen by Sunday Life, only ONE objection was lodged within the legal time limit.

And cops have written to the council to inform them that they have NO objection to any of the six sex shops being granted a licence. In the past, some councillors in Belfast have openly branded sex shops "degrading, immoral and indecent".

But one Ulster Unionist councillor admitted they were beginning to worry about potential legal action.

"If a judge was to instruct the council to grant these licences, as is the case in many other cities throughout the UK and Europe, then councillors could be surcharged if they refused to implement such an order."

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