Malta has been ordered to pay out more than £17,000 in compensation after banning a Scottish writer's play.

Anthony Neilson's Stitching prompted walkouts when it was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002.

It was banned in Malta in 2009 for blasphemy and obscenity against Holocaust survivors, but that ruling has now been branded illegal by the European Court of Human Rights.

It has ordered the state to pay €20,000 to Unifaun Theatre Productions Limited, as well as director Chris Gatt and actors Pia Zammit and Mike Basmadjian.

Ednburgh-born Neilson's plays are infamous for their graphic explorations of sexuality and violence.

Stitching features scenes of self-mutilation and explicit descriptions of disturbing sexual fantasies. One character fantasises about re-enacting the Moors murders.

However, Neilson defended his play, saying in 2002: "I feel bad that audiences walked out, but I can't write for cowards.

"If something shocks me, I don't just walk away from it, I ask myself why I am shocked by it."

The court's decision, which was published on Tuesday, was welcomed by the Maltese green party.

Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Carmel Cacopardo said: "There is no place for such bigoted acts of artistic censorship in a democratic country which aspires to respect freedom of thought and expression."

The Maltese Government effectively dismantled its censorship laws in 2012, partly as a result of the controversy over Stitching.