BOSTON -- A man was sentenced to a year in prison for doing nothing while a young girl was raped in the bed beside him, and now some are calling for tougher guidelines.

NewsCenter 5's Pam Cross reported Thursday that the Legislature is starting a push for reform.

"Most people think that this individual should have been sent away for 60 years instead of six months," Sen. Richard Tisei said.

The sentence was handed down at Salem Superior Court. Patrick Doyle pleaded guilty to child endangerment and witness intimidation. Prosecutors claim in July 2004 two men, Robert L'Italien and Richard Lapham, raped a 9-year-old girl. Investigators said her mother, Mary Jean Armstrong, offered the child in exchange for crack cocaine.

Doyle, whose family is well-known in Salem, Mass., was in the room and did nothing. Prosecutors asked for four to six years, but this week, Superior Court Judge Leila Kern sentenced him to one year in prison. He's eligible for parole in six months.

"But the problem is that this judge didn't even follow the current sentencing guidelines that said that when you sentence somebody, you are supposed to consider the impact on the victim. In this case, it was a little girl who was defenseless to protect herself," Tisei said.

A bill creating longer sentences is in the works, and advocates want mandatory sentences.

David Frank spent eight years as a prosecutor. He said judges don't want to be told what to do, and mandatory sentences create problems for the system like in drug cases.

"What it has done is led to a significant backlog in terms of processing drug cases. It's led more cases to go to trial than would have if there were no mandatory sentences," Frank said.

The man charged with raping the girl was convicted and is serving 15 to 18 years in prison. The girl's mother is still awaiting trial.