The Attorney General’s Chambers is to appeal against the sentence handed down to Charles Cover.

Convicted paedophile Cover was handed an 18-month suspended sentence by Deemster Kainth earlier this month after being found guilty by a jury of gross indecency and indecent assault of a minor.

Since the sentence was passed, a petition calling for tougher sentences for paedophiles has been launched and gained thousands of signatures.

A statement on behalf of the Attorney General’s Chambers said: ’The Attorney General [John Quinn] has confirmed that he intends to refer the sentence of Mr Cover to the Appeal Division on the basis of undue leniency.

’As this process has been commenced we will not comment further until the outcome of the court proceedings.’

A police post on Facebook added: ’We know there is a lot of public interest in this matter but please avoid inappropriate posts on this thread. They will be removed.’

At his sentencing, the court was told that, between May 2015 and July 2016, Cover assaulted a pre-teenage girl in a motorhome. She was aged 11 or 12 at the time.

Prosecutor James Robinson read out a statement from the victim, who was not in court, which said Cover’s actions had left a terrible impact on her life.

She has suffered from anxiety and been kept awake at night thinking about what happened.

It had impacted on her school work and she had also been left feeling unable to do normal activities like having sleepovers at friends’ homes.

The victim’s mother said Cover was someone they trusted and that he had ’ruined my faith in people’.

She said Cover’s actions had been ’devastating’ for her and her family. ’You don’t think it will ever happen to your family,’ she added.

Defence advocate Ian Kermode said his client had acted ’spontaneously’ after drinking heavily and that it was ’evident’ from his letter sent to the court that he continues to deny the offences ever happened.

A social enquiry report recommended a suspended sentence to allow for one-to-one probation. It said custody would not stop him reoffending.

Deemster Kainth described the victim as a ’very brave young girl’. He told Cover: ’Children are our future, children should be able to enjoy their childhood.

’You have deprived her of having a wonderful, open childhood where she should be carefree of anything that goes on in the world.’

He added: ’You are a very stupid and foolish man.’

Deemster Kainth, who appeared via video link, handed Cover a 18-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months to allow for probation work.

Cover will also be subject to a 12-month supervision order, be placed on the sex offenders’ register and be subject to a sexual offences prevention order for seven years.

He must also pay the victim £1,000 in compensation.