Child sex attacker jailed in US juvenile facility

A 26-year-old transgender woman who sexually assaulted a child will serve time in a juvenile facility because she was underage when she committed the offence, a US judge ruled on Thursday.

Hannah Tubbs was 17 when she attacked the 10-year-old in a restroom near Los Angeles in 2014, but was not charged until last year.

In a court in Palmdale, Judge Mario Barrera said that without a request from the district attorney's office to transfer the case to an adult court, his hands were tied.

"I want to be clear," he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "The filing of a transfer motion is entirely within the discretion of the district attorney."

The two-year sentence was the maximum permitted for someone convicted as a juvenile, the judge said.

Had Tubbs been transferred to an adult court, the sentence could have been longer.

The ruling will shine a light on Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, whose policy is not to move juvenile defendants to adult courts.

Gascon has argued that as young people's brains are not fully developed, anyone who commits a crime while underage should be rehabilitated in a juvenile facility.

The Times reported that Gascon has previously expressed concern Tubbs might be targeted in an adult jail because she is transgender.