A group of artists have provoked outrage by using images of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann to make pornographic pictures.

An event held at an art gallery in Hackney, London, saw participants paste photographs of the missing four-year-old onto pornographic magazines.

Artists at the Decima Gallery claimed the stunt was a satirical look at the way the Madeleine case was treated by the media.

The event was part of an event at the weekend examining the pornography industry.

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate, said such acts could only hamper the hunt for their daughter, who went missing from a holiday apartment in Portugal in May 2007.

He said: 'This sort of thing is a complete distraction from the search for Madeleine and Gerry and Kate will simply not be dignifying it by commenting on it whatsoever.'

Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, branded the stunt 'sick and appalling'.

The Labour MP said: 'Hackney has a reputation as an artistic place with artists who do interesting and sometimes provocative work, but this sort of thing doesn't do the reputation of Hackney any good.

'This goes beyond the bounds of that and is just sick and I don't see how anyone could think anything else