A MOTHER has spoken out against the sentence handed down to a 40-year-old housewife who had sex with a 14- year-old boy.

The Teesside woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her son, said she felt Sharon Edwards, who admitted having sex with the schoolboy and offering him cocaine at Teesside Crown Court last week, had “robbed him of his innocence”.

She angrily denied the judge’s suggestion that it was her son who had seduced Edwards, saying that he was so innocent he still took a cuddly toy to bed.

Speaking in a national newspaper yesterday, she said: “This evil woman robbed my boy of his innocence. She’s a mature woman who manipulated him.”

The mother joined child protection officials who condemned the sentence handed down to Edwards.

Despite her barrister conceding that she probably faced several years behind bars, Teesside’s most senior judge, Peter Fox, gave her a suspended sentence with probation service supervision and said that the “mature”

teenager had seduced her.

Judge Fox accepted that Edwards, of Elton Grove, Stockton, had been unhappy in her marriage and was flattered by the attention of the schoolboy.

The NSPCC said his comments were “unacceptable”.

“This gives out completely the wrong message – that sex abuse is the fault of the child, when in reality, it never is,”

said a spokesman.

The boy’s mother said: “A 40-year-old male paedophile involved with such a young girl would have gone to prison, so why is this different?”

The mother said she found out about the sex sessions when Edwards’ husband discovered explicit emails on their home computer.

She said: “The sentence was inadequate, but what really amazed me was the judge’s wording.”