Mum Gail Jordan's amusing plan to celebrate her son's 21st birthday by presenting him with a cake sporting a snap of him as a bare-cheeked bouncing baby came off the rails when Asda staff declared the image "pornographic", the Telegraph reports.

Jordan, 41, went to the supermarket chain's branch in Liscard, Wirral to avail herself of a £9.97 offer to ice a cake with a photo on top. She selected a pic of son David as a five-month-old nipper, lying on his front, but staff insisted his arse be protected by a "strategically-placed star".

Care worker Jordan recounted: "They said it could be anyone's child so it could be deemed pornographic. But I was asking to have it printed on a 21st birthday cake, so surely it was pretty obvious that it was my son. It's ridiculous - I understand they have rules, but there ought to be a place for common sense as well."

Jordan gamely concluded: "In the end they would only do it with a star over his bottom, which to be honest made the whole thing even more hilarious."

An Asda spokesman offered: "We have a policy, as do many other retailers, of no nudity, whatever the age of the subject. In this case we offered a number of alternatives including enlarging and cropping the photo, increasing the border size or applying a strategically placed star to save his blushes." ®

93 comments posted — Comment period finished