A tourist who cradled her jail-born baby in the High Court during her appeal against a 12-month sentence for pickpocketing was freed yesterday. Sav Cham Roeun, 28, was one of two pregnant Cambodians who escaped with a purse after a woman's handbag was slashed open last October. Sav's child, born in prison five months ago, cried out when she brought him into court for her appeal. Mr Justice Raymond Sears suggested prison authorities provide a creche so children did not appear with their mothers in the dock. 'It is not right. It puts undue pressure on a judge trying a case when you see someone with a child in the dock,' he said. 'It is not conducive to proper judgments.' But the judge said the child would not influence his decision. Sav, who was eight months pregnant at the time of the crime, was jailed for a year after magistrate Lister Howell found her guilty of theft. Her accomplice Si Pa, 31, five months pregnant, pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for six months. Duncan Percy, for Sav, said she was not responsible for cutting open the victim's bag and argued the sentence was too harsh. The court heard Sav was married to a Chinese businessman living in Shenzhen. She was in Hong Kong waiting to visit her mother-in-law in China but was arrested. Mr Percy said the magistrate should have considered the 'pressing human reasons' against keeping the mother in prison too long. The judge said the magistrate had been right to impose the jail term, although he added: 'It is always a tragedy to see children having to be born in prison let alone brought up in prison.' He reduced the mother's sentence to six months which meant she could be released immediately. The judge said: 'Don't offend again . . . the sooner you get back to Cambodia the better.'