A housewife who ran away to the United States with a 14-yearold boy admitted a number of charges before a High Court judge in Nottingham yesterday.
The 33-year-old mother admitted gross indecency with the boy - then 13 - between June 1st, 1996, and September 1st, 1996.
She also pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent assault on a male person between September 2nd, 1996, and July 13th, 1997, and abducting a child between July 13th and July 30th, 1997.
Nottingham Crown Court was told the couple had been having a consenting sexual relationship for a year before they ran away to the United States to start a new life. They were arrested by the FBI, who traced a call the boy made to his mother, after 10 days travelling around Florida.
The judge, Mr Justice Potts, put the woman on probation for two years on each count, the probation periods to run concurrently, telling her that he was treating the case as exceptional. He said he took into account the boy's own maturity, the punishment the woman herself had already endured, and the effect a custodial sentence would have on her family.
"I fully recognise and give weight to the fact that at all times the boy was a willing and active participant in what went on," the judge said. "I also proceed on the basis that at all times you and he, to put it at its lowest, were extremely fond of each other. But even these matters cannot excuse the seriousness of what you did."
The judge said that although no one would ever be certain, it appeared to him that the boy in question had not suffered long-term harm, and added: "He's a mature and sensible young man who is capable of thinking for himself."
The judge told the housewife: "The effect of what you did, however, on yourself and on your own family has been catastrophic." He said she had been placed in shackles while she was in custody in Florida for six weeks.
The judge said the defendant and her husband had suffered at the hands of the media, and the stress of the case had resulted in the woman taking an overdose of aspirin in September.
The judge further said that testimonials he had received from members of the public had helped influence his decision not to jail the woman.