Ananova:

A church pastor has banned under-12s from his Good Friday service because it's too violent.

Mark Elder, 45, will show clips from Mel Gibson's controversial crucifixion film The Passion of the Christ, reports The Sun.

He said: "The Easter story is not pretty and I want to get across the true unsanitised version. It's effectively an X-certificate service."

The pastor slammed the way Easter has been "sentimentalised with eggs and fluffy chickens".

But he promised other activities for the kids who miss out at Heaton Baptist Church in Newcastle.