Court decision "sends out wrong message"

David Hunter, 40, from Kings Court, Templepatrick, County Antrim, was also fined and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.

However, Eileen Calder, from the Rape Crisis Centre, said that the sentence did not reflect the crime.

"It says to men out there who are looking at child pornography that this is not something which is taken very seriously by society," Ms Calder said.

"But it is very important to remember that each picture of child pornography is an actual record of a child being abused."

The Northern Ireland director of National Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Ian Elliott, said incidents of this nature were viewed very seriously by the charity.

"What we need to remember is that behind ever photograph there is a child who suffered an abusive experience. The impact can be very long lasting indeed," Mr Elliott said.

He said the creation of a market for pornographic images of children really concerned the NSPCC.

"The elimination of that market is absolute priority," he said, adding that there was evidence emerging that people were making a lot of money from this kind of pornography.

He said the full weight of law should be taken against people who put such images on the internet.