Babysitter Who Had Sex With 11-Year-Old Boy Avoids Jail

Judge says her immaturity and boy's maturity 'narrows the arithmetic age gap'
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 6, 2015 9:00 AM CDT
Babysitter Who Had Sex With 11-Year-Old Boy Avoids Jail
Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard slams down a gavel to start the Alabama legislative session at the State House, Tuesday, March 3, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala.   (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

A 21-year-old UK babysitter who admits to having sexual intercourse last November with the 11-year-old boy in her care has been spared a prison term in a controversial court ruling, reports the Guardian. Jade Hatt, who admitted to police that she straddled the boy, took off her clothes and then his, and then had intercourse, was described by her attorney as vulnerable with a hard upbringing, having spent two years in the hospital fighting leukemia as a young girl, reports the Telegraph. Judge Tim Mousley ruled that "it was quite clear he was a mature 11-year-old and you were an immature 20-year-old so that narrows the arithmetic age gap between you." But the case gets stranger.

Hatt had sex at an earlier point with the boy's father, who gave a statement calling his son "sex mad" and "fully up" for getting "a notch on his belt." The boy, meanwhile, said the act, which took 45 seconds, was wrong and he didn't enjoy it. "This is a very disturbing case involving attempts to find mitigating circumstances," said the CEO of the charity Kidscape. “However physically mature he might appear, [he] is a child in every sense. He cannot be expected to have the emotional maturity to engage in a sexual relationship." Hatt must register as a sex offender for seven years and refrain from having unsupervised contact with younger boys for two years. (This airline exec sought sex with a 10-year-old.)

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