An “irascible” and “cross” father who regularly beat his young children with household implements, including a belt and a ladle, has been given a two-year suspended sentence.

A former priest was sentenced to eight months in jail this afternoon for sexually assaulting an altar boy on a number of occasions in the church sacristy as soon as Sunday mass ended.

A Thurles man has been jailed for three years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court for an aggravated sexual assault on a prostitute in Cork city in June 2000.