Three Google executives have been found guilty of breaking privacy laws by allowing disturbing footage of a disabled Italian boy being bullied to be posted on the Internet. The ruling yesterday was the first of its kind and was condemned by a British MP as "the biggest threat to Internet freedom we have seen."

Google said the Milan verdict "poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the Internet is built" as none of its employees had anything to do with the video. "They didn't upload it, they didn't film it, they didn't review it and yet they have been found guilty," said Google's senior communications manager, Bill Echikson.

The trial centred on footage posted on Google Videos of a teen suffering from Down syndrome who was being bullied by four boys at a Turin school. The footage was posted in September 2006 and became the most viewed clip on Google Italy, where it remained for two months before it was removed.

Prosecutors in Milan brought the charges after being contacted by the charity Viva Down. Lawyers argued that the boy's privacy had been violated and that Google was guilty of negligence by not removing the footage quicker than it did.

In the footage, the boy was seen cowering as he was punched and kicked, before one of the youths attacking him made a mocking call to the Viva Down charity.

Google argued that it removed the video immediately after being notified and co-operated with Italian authorities to help identify the bullies and bring them to justice.

The three executives found guilty are David Carl Drummond, senior vice-president, George De Los Reyes, a retired financial executive, and privacy director Peter Fleischer.

They were given six-month suspended prison sentences, while they were cleared of defamation.

A fourth executive Arvind Desikan, of Google Video Europe, was cleared.

None of the four was in court for the hearing, which was held in private. Judge Oscar Magi ruled that the verdict should be published in leading Italian newspapers. The events in the footage took place shortly before Google bought YouTube in 2006. All four Google executives denied wrongdoing.

Lawyers for Californiabased Google had argued that they were not responsible for material uploaded on to the web and that the sheer volume of material that would have to be previewed before being posted made it impossible to do so. The four bullies were identified and later convicted in a youth court.

After the hearing, prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said, "We are very satisfied because with this trial we have dealt with a serious problem, that is, protecting a person and that should always come above business freedom. "A company's rights cannot prevail over a person's dignity. This sentence sends a clear signal." Tom Watson, a British Labour MP, described the ruling as " the biggest threat to internet freedom we have seen in Europe."