A CHILD victim support group has launched an appeal against the sentence imposed on a man caught on tape verbally abusing a toddler.

And the 13-month-old child's mother has welcomed the action of the Phoenixsurvivors.com organisation, which has lodged an appeal with the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith.

Phoenix Survivors is an internet-based support group set-up for and by people who have experienced child sex abuse.

The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was delighted to discover that there was an organisation willing to fight for justice.

She said that she believed Grant Aspden should have been jailed for what he did to her son.

"Phoenixsurvivors have contacted me and pledged to take the case further," she said. "I understand that magistrates on a previous occasion were going to send him to prison but were prevented by a legal technicality.

Aspden, 30, of Fielding Crescent, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child. He was made subject to a community rehabilitation order for two years and ordered to pay £150 costs. The court heard he had pleaded guilty on the basis that he had shouted abuse at the child.

The court heard that the child's mother had left a "singalong" children's tape recorder running when she left Aspden in charge of her child.

The magistrates listened to about 25 minutes of the tape during which the child could be heard screaming and crying. Aspden shouted and made animal-like grunting noises. The Phoenixsurvivors.com letter to Lord Goldsmith says Aspden should have been sentenced to "at least three years in jail with mandatory treatment and special long-term monitoring upon release."