OSLO (AFP) – A couple who had sex on stage in front of 4,000 onlookers at a Norwegian rock festival last July shocked a Norwegian court yesterday with explicit photos sewn into their clothes and by flashing the press during a court recess, media reported.

Norwegian Tommy Hol Ellingsen, 28, and his Swedish girlfriend Leona Johansson, 21, showed up in court dressed as small children, but with pictures of genitalia sewn onto her clothes, Norwegian daily VG reported on its Internet site.

Then, during a court recess, Hol Ellingsen dropped his pants and flashed the surrounding press.

“I seem to have dropped my pants,” he was quoted by the paper as saying.

The couple were in court yesterday to contest the 10,000-kroner (US$1,570, 1,217-euro) fines they were each issued after having sex for nearly 10 minutes on stage during a concert by The Cumshots at the Quart music festival in the southern city of Kristiansand last July as the crowd cheered and the band played on.

The stunt was later discovered to be a pre-arranged public relations gimmick to raise money for the couple’s environmental group, called F… for Forest, which raises money for organisations working to protect the rainforest.

Among other things, the couple have launched a pornographic website where visitors to the site can pay $15 a month to view videos of them making love.

The couple’s lawyer reportedly argued that their behaviour was permissible under Norwegian laws on freedom of expression.