Two women whose lives have been devastated by sex offenders have vowed to fight the ‘unduly lenient’ sentence of a paedophile in Oxford.

Shy Keenan and Sara Payne have written to the Attorney General Baroness Scotland to ask her to review the possibility of launching an appeal against the sentence handed to Colin Lyons.

At Oxford Crown Court on October 6, Judge Julian Hall sentenced Lyons, 19, to a three-year community order after he admitted sexual activity with a child.

The judge ordered Lyons to attend a sex offenders treatment programme, as he said that he believed the public would be better protected by this than by imposing a custodial term.

Ms Keenan and Ms Payne, the co-founders of child protection charity Phoenix Chief Advocates, said they felt the sentence was ‘unduly lenient in the extreme’.

Both Ms Keenan, who was systematically raped by her stepfather as a child, and Ms Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was killed by a paedophile, said they believed Lyons should have been jailed for six years.

In a joint statement released by Phoenix Chief Advocates, the pair said: "This sentence is not sending out the right message — that this person has hurt a child.

"What we ask is that we show children we will protect them. This child was quite young and showed an incredible amount of courage to tell her mum, and in the end she sees him get a community order."

Phoenix Chief Advocates hopes that Baroness Scotland will challenge the tariff in the Court of Appeal.

The offence of sexual activity with a child carries a maximum term of 14 years, according to the Sentencing Guideline Council.

Before sentencing Lyons, Judge Hall told him his crime was disgusting, but added: "If I sentence you to 12 months you would come out in six months with all these very difficult problems unresolved.

"For the protection of others in the future the only order I can make is a community order. It seems to me that is the proper sentence for child protection in the future."

Lyons, who asked for four other similar offences to be taken into consideration, was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for five years.

A spokesman for the judge said the reasons for his sentence had been made clear in open court and he would not comment further.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said: "We are not currently aware of the case but should the Law Officers receive a request to review the sentence we will do so in the normal way."