The Daily Mail reports that a transsexual who downloaded images of child pornography escaped jail because a judge said prison would be too tough a place for her.

Laura Voyce, 20, who was born a man, faced being locked up for nine months in a male prison after being convicted of 14 counts of downloading indecent images of children.

But despite this Judge Lesley Newton allowed Voyce, who is in the middle of a sex change which means she is biologically a man but legally a woman, to walk free with a nine-month jail term suspended for a year. She must also complete 100 hours of unpaid work. The judge said prison would be an ‘appalling experience’ for the sex offender.

Last night children’s charities reacted with anger to the leniency of Voyce’s sentence. Michelle Elliott, founder of Kidscape, said: ‘This ruling is absolutely absurd. It sends out entirely the wrong message that this transsexual’s feelings are more important than the emotions experienced by the children in these images who have gone through this terrible abuse. She should have gone to jail. There should be no special circumstances where child abuse in concerned.’

Judge Newton said she was satisfied Voyce had downloaded the images for her own ‘perverted-sexual gratification’, but refused to jail her.

The judge said: ‘I take these offences very seriously; these are real children who are being abused so that people like you can look at them. Frankly, you deserve to go to prison, but I can’t bring myself to send you to prison, entirely because I think prison would be an appalling experience for you. I do not see how you could be kept safe in a prison environment with the best will in the world on the part of those who run such establishments.’

Voyce was told she must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and warned she would be immediately jailed if she fell foul of the law again.

Access the original article online at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1294620/Transsexual-pervert-downloaded-child-porn-spared-jail.html