BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut – Stratford secretary and aspiring model Tammy Imre, who agreed Wednesday to plead guilty to having a sexual relationship with an 8-year-old boy, wrote a friend from prison that she believed the boy was a “small adult,” her lawyer confirmed.

“She said he acted like a little 30-year-old man and she had a delusional fantasy that they were having a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship,” Imre’s lawyer, Donald Papcsy, said.

“This is a savvy young kid and it’s clear he knew what was going on,” the defense lawyer said of the neighborhood boy.

And while Papcsy said he felt his client’s alleged delusion could have won their case with an insanity defense, he said Imre instead will plead guilty to reduced charges Sept. 19 in Superior Court.

She is expected to face a six-year prison term, followed by a lengthy period of probation.

“We felt we could have won on the mental disease or defect issue, but then she would have spent more time in a mental hospital than in jail,” Papcsy said.

The 30-year-old Imre, the mother of an 8-year-old daughter, is charged with first-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.

She is accused of having sex with the boy – who lived several houses away from her Birch Drive home in Stratford – beginning when he was 7. It ended last September after the boy’s mother found a love letter Imre had written to the boy.

Police said Imre heard that the boy had begun to tell people in the neighborhood that she was going to go to jail, so she decided to go to police headquarters. According to police, Imre admitted, without prompting, having sexual relations with the boy. “I can’t give a number but it was a lot,” she allegedly told officers.

Imre stood beside her lawyer Wednesday during the brief court appearance. She was dressed in a gray sweatshirt and jeans, her formerly long blonde hair now mostly brown. After the case was continued she was led away by judicial marshals.

Papcsy said that, as a result of plea negotiations with the state and Judge Roland Fasano, Imre would plead guilty to reduced charges. He said the plea may be made under the Alford Doctrine, in which Imre would not admit guilt but concede the state has enough evidence to find her guilty of the crime if she went to trial.

He would say only that Imre will get less than 10 years in prison. But court sources said the indicated sentence is six years.

“She should be out of jail in a relatively short time and hopefully she will be able to resume her life and assimilate back into society,” Papcsy said. “Our position from the beginning was that it wasn’t a [first-degree sexual assault] case and we presented the court with psychological reports that backed up our defense of mental disease or defect.”

Police said Imre told them the boy had been the aggressor in the relationship, getting her to agree to break off ties with an adult boyfriend and persuading her not to take birth-control pills. She said she gave him a key to her home. Imre’s daughter told police she saw the boy doing “disgusting” things with her mother. The girl said she often saw the boy lying on top of her mother.

The girl, who was expected to be called as a witness by the state if the case had gone to trial, was taken from Imre and is in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families.

Police said the boy initially denied doing anything sexual with Imre because he was worried about getting her in trouble. But later they said he admitted having sexual intercourse with her. However, Papcsy contends that there never was any penetration by the boy.