THE judge in a case in which a woman from Wellington plied a vulnerable 13-year-old boy with cider and slept with him in a bid to get pregnant has decided not to send her to jail.

Hannah Cox, 29, of Priory, had serious learning difficulties, an IQ of 70 and had been under the control of an abusive partner when she committed the offences, Taunton Crown Court heard.

Judge David Ticehurst said justice must be ‘tempered with mercy’.

Jenny Talentine, prosecuting, said the couple targeted the boy, who had learning difficulties and ADHD, inviting him into their home and giving him cider before Cox slept with him three times, between October and November 2013.

Some months later, Cox admitted what she had done to a friend and the information later got back to the boy’s mother, who reported it to police.

When she was arrested, Cox said: “I know it’s about me having sex with a 13-year-old. I know I shouldn’t have done it.”

She told police she had been trying to get pregnant and it had been her partner who told her to sleep with the boy, in the hope she would conceive a child.

Rebecca Bradberry, defending, told Taunton Crown Court that Cox had a number of physical and mental disabilities and had been in an abusive relationship, very much under the control of her partner.

“This is a most unusual defendant and this offence is unusual in the circumstances,” she said. “She fully accepts responsibility for what she has done. She wants to move forward.

“All I can ask is a plea of mercy and a suspended sentence for my client. There are grave concerns for her vulnerabilities if she were sent to prison.”

Sentencing Cox, Judge David Ticehurst said they were very serious offences but ‘justice should be tempered by mercy’.

“There is no doubt this young boy and his family are suffering the consequences of your behaviour,” he said. “You should have known better and he was a particularly vulnerable child.

“But I intend to depart from the guidelines in this case. You have considerable physical and mental difficulties and I am satisfied you were under the control and influence of your partner at the time of the offences.

“I do not consider that the public needs protection from you. In fact, if there had been more support for you, I do not believe these offences would have been committed at all.

“Judges are allowed to temper justice with mercy and this is what I’m going to do in this case.”

He sentenced Cox to two years in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered her to sign the sexual offenders’ register for ten years.