Paedophile Tracy Lyons Released From Jail
The news of the release of a female paedophile from prison after having served half of her jail term has been received with anger by a children's charity.
Mum of nine Tracy Lyons from Portsmouth was sentenced to a four-year prison sentence in January this year.
But because of time spent on remand awaiting the court hearing, the 41-year-old has been released from Bronzefield prison in Surrey just nine months later having served a total of two years behind bars.
The mum-of-nine pleaded guilty to assault of a child by penetration, sexual assault of a child under 13, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and three offences of distributing indecent photographs of a child.
Sentencing her at Bristol Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Royce, described her crimes as ''disturbing'', ''deeply worrying'' and ''despicable''.
He imposed on Lyons an extended sentence of seven years - consisting of four years imprisonment, of which she would only serve two years, and five years on licence.
She was also banned from working with children for life and placed on the Sex Offenders' Register.
Claude Knights, of children's charity Kidscape, said:
''This early release is a betrayal of the victims and their families whose suffering will continue for years.''
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said:
''We do not comment on individual prisoners.
''Public protection is our first priority, which is why serious sex offenders released from prison are closely supervised by both the Probation Service and the police, and why they must adhere to a strict set of controls and conditions.
''Where an offender breaches their licence conditions, they would be liable to be recalled to custody.
''In addition, sex offenders are subject to the notification requirements under the sex offenders' register, if they fail to comply they may be subject to a further five years imprisonment.''
The spokeswoman explained that under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, offenders given a determinate sentence serve half their sentence in custody and half in the community.
