Jailed: Karen Ackland, 44, has been sentenced to prison for having sex with a 14-year-old boy

A 44-year-old woman who has sex with an underage schoolboy has been jailed after judges overturned the original non-custodial sentence.

Karen Ackland, of Deal, Kent, took advantage of a friend’s 14-year-old son after a drunken party, but was initially handed a nine-month suspended prison term.

Court of Appeal judges in London today quashed the ‘unduly lenient’ sentence, replaced it with two years in prison.

Ackland, a former sailor was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court in July after admitting three counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child.

The charges related to offences committed in April 2013 against the then 14-year-old son of a friend.

The boy’s mother said: 'I never expected her to do this, you trust your friends. And he was just a child.

'She was always a party animal and when she had too many drinks she completely loses all self-respect and embarrasses herself.

'She used to always say 'I'm a nightmare when I've had a drink' and she'd always have a few men on the go.

'But I was a great friend to her and I stood by her. I never expected this.

'She was very domineering and my son said as soon as it happened that he'd wished he'd never done it.'

Divorced mother-of-two Ackland was at a party in April two years ago when she met the schoolboy, who is now 16 years old.

After hours of drinking the 44-year-old Tesco worker backed the helpless boy into a corner in the kitchen and they kissed.

She tried to get the boy to walk her home on the pretext she had lost her phone, but his older brother refused to let him go.

After hours of drinking the boy's mother offered Ackland a bed at their home, but as the boy went upstairs to get some tracksuit bottoms so he could change for bed, she sneaked into the room behind him.

Abuser: The divorced mother-of-two from Deal, Kent, took advantage of her friend’s teenage son after a drunken party

Change: Canterbury Crown Court initially handed the Tesco worker a nine-month suspended prison term

Ackland, the mother of two teenagers, pounced on the boy and used him as her 'sex object' - until the boy's older brother heard noises and Ackland saying, 'I can't believe I'm doing this with a 15 year old!', and burst into the bedroom.

Lord Justice Pitchford, sitting with Mr Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice William Davis, ruled today that the original sentence, which had been suspended for a year, was ‘plainly unduly lenient’.

Announcing the decision, Lord Justice Pitchford said the court accepted that the offences were ‘out of character’, and committed ‘on one drunken evening’.

Speaking after the hearing, Solicitor General Robert Buckland, said: ‘Karen Ackland, a 44-year-old woman, clearly took advantage of a teenager.

‘I note that the defendant pleaded guilty at a late stage in this case. I referred the case to the Court of Appeal as being unduly lenient because the original sentence failed to fully reflect the ages of the defendant and the victim.

‘I am therefore pleased the Court of Appeal today imposed an immediate prison term on Ackland, which should reassure the public and send out a strong message to women that teenage boys have a legal right to be protected from potential sexual interference.’