THE highest judges in the country are set to review a controversial ruling in the case of babysitter Jade Hatt who was spared prison after having sex with her 11-year-old charge.

Hatt, 21, was given a suspended sentence following the 45 second encounter at the boy's home last November, and later explained her actions by claiming she 'fell in love too easily'.

The apparently lenient sentence was later slammed by victims charities including the NSPCC, and was reviewed by the Attorney General after a petition launched online gathered more than 3,000 signatures.

The mother of the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had received a call from Attorney General Jeremy Wright personally this afternoon to inform her the decision had been taken to send the case to the Court of Appeal.

"The wonderful news is the Attorney General has decided to go for appeal," she said. "He rang me to give me the news, and that has left me very tearful and emotional again.

"Hopefully we should get a date within the next six weeks for it to go in front of the three highest judges in the country. It will then be down to them to decide whether it was an unduly lenient sentence.

"The whole thing has quietened down since the case, but I know there is a still a huge amount of support from the petition that was set up, and that must have helped in getting the case appealed.

"I am still very upset about what happened but am going through all the normal motions. The support I have had is absolutely fantastic, and I just want to thank all the people of Swindon for being behind me."

The mother has previously criticised her former partner for helping Hatt escape with a light touch by playing down the effect on their son.

Rob Ross, defending Hatt at the sentencing, read a statement from the victim's father to the court.

"He is sex mad," it said. "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.'"

Hatt was given a six month jail term suspended for two years with supervision and told to register as a sex offender for seven years.

Judge Tim Mousley also imposed a sexual harm prevention order banning her from having unsupervised contact with young boys for two years.

"Having read everything before me, 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," the judge told her.

"I have read the comments of the boy's father to the police where he doesn't consider you a typical 20-year-old. I have also read what he has said about the effect on the victim."

A spokesman for the Attorney General said: "After careful consideration the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC MP has asked the Court of Appeal to consider the sentence of Jade Hatt under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme, it will now be up to three Court of Appeal Judges to decide whether they consider it to be unduly lenient and whether or not to increase it.”