A drunken would-be cowboy was told by a judge yesterday that he was too old to be put across his mother’s knee to have his bottom slapped.

The severity of images in a child pornography case merited a jail sentence, but mitigating factors required it to be suspended, according to the sentencing judge in the case against a middle-aged Corkman yesterday.

Boredom and curiosity prompted a middle-aged Corkman to go online and access child pornography but yesterday it emerged his actions had devastating consequences for him.