A 21-year-old girl, Jade Hatt, who had sexual intercourse with an 11-year-old boy she was supposed to be babysitting escaped being sent to prison after the boy’s father pleaded with the judge to pardon her actions, Daily Mail reports.
Jade Hatt was given a suspended sentence after the boy’s father, who had dated her in the past, said his son was “sex mad” and “fully up for the experience.”
Her lawyers also argued that she be pardoned because she was too “immature” for her age and the boy was too “mature” for his age, which narrowed the “age gap arithmetic.”
She was arrested after the boy’s father noticed love bites on his neck and saw text messages she sent to the boy’s phone.
On interrogation, she admitted having sexual activity with a minor but said that the boy told her he was 15, a claim the father denied, saying he told her beforehand that his son was 11.
However, in his testimony, the boy’s father said: ‘I know he told her he was 15. He looks older than his years. He is sex mad.
‘He would have been fully up for this experience and in many ways sees it as a notch on his belt and is totally unaffected by it.’
The trial judge, Tim Mousley QC, apparently bought into the defence put up by the accused’s lawyer and the passionate appeals from the boy’s father, regarding the case as “exceptional” and stating that he would put aside usual sentencing guidelines.
While delivering his judgement, the judge said: ‘Having read everything before me, it was quite clear he was a mature 11-year-old and you (Hatt) were an immature 20-year-old so that narrows the arithmetic age gap between you.’
Hatt was given a six-month suspended prison sentence, ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years, and banned from having unsupervised contact with young boys.
Rights groups however condemned the judgement as discriminatory, noting that the sentence would have been much harsher if the boy was the 21-year-old and the girl the 11-year-old.