Two Argentine judges are under fire for reducing the sentence of a man convicted of raping a six-year-old because the victim was described as being gay and had already suffered abuse at the hands of his own father, and therefore had already been traumatized.

The child had a “homosexual orientation,” Argentinian appeal court judges said in their ruling as they cut the prison sentence for Mario Tolosa, a sports club vice president, from six years to three, reports The Telegraph.

“It cannot be considered abuse when a boy is used to being abused in his home and is accustomed to sexual behavior and has a homosexual orientation,” Horacio Piombo and Benjamín Sal Llargués said.

Piombo defended the ruling in interviews on Monday, saying that before Tolosa molested the boy, the child had already suffered “the initiation by his father into the worst of worlds, leading him to depravation.”

The judge said that as a result of that experience, the boy had showed “signs of a transvestite conduct, of conduct we had to take into account.”

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The judges ruled that Tolosa’s actions should not be considered “gravely outrageous” in legal terms because the victim already “was making a precocious choice” of his sexuality.

The ruling dates from last year but has just become public as prosecutors at Buenos Aires’ Supreme Court have decided to appeal the verdict.

Associated Press contributed to this report.