The victim of the first woman in the Bradford area to be sentenced to part-time prison has condemned the judgement.

Mother-of-five, Julie Garnett, 39, says the 11 weekends in prison facing 24-year-old Tamla Templeton, of West Bank Close, Keighley, was too lenient.

Mrs Garnett has fled her Keighley home and is living at a secret address in the Bradford area.

She said that the attack in August last year has left her still on medication and that her four-year-old son James, who witnessed the attack, was also traumatised.

"I have gone through the system properly and it has let me down."

She added: "I have a heart condition and I suffer from angina. I had a heart attack in 1999."

She has written to the Shipley MP Chris Leslie - who is also the Government's Courts Minister - seeking his support for her complaint to West Yorkshire Police about the sentence.

Mr Leslie replied saying he had written to Keighley police calling for them to investi- gate the "distressing incident".

Templeton, who has a seven year-old son, is currently serving her first weekend in Morton Hall Prison, near Lincoln.

The trainee painter and decorator pleaded guilty to an offence of assault and was assessed for the new type of sentence designed to avoid problems such as family difficulties.

The act says the sentence is appropriate for people who do not pose a risk of harm to the public.

Templeton's mother Christine Holdsworth, 42, of Hill Top Way, Keighley, said she thought her daughter's sentence was fair because the judge had all the evidence and had adjourned making the decision for four weeks.

A West Yorkshire police spokesman confirmed that the force had received Mr Leslie's letter.

"We are now looking at the issues raised in it," she said.