Locked up: Teenager who tried to rape a 91-year-old

A teenager who broke into a 91-year-old's home and tried to rape her has been jailed indefinitely.

Ashley Lawrence molested the pensioner and tried to force himself upon her while pressing a pillow on to her face.

The 18-year-old was arrested but twice escaped from detention centres.

On the run he committed other offences, including burgling an elderly couple's home while they were asleep and breaking into a shed to spray paint his white, prison-issue trainers black.

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At Leicester Crown Court yesterday, Lawrence, who has been offending since he was 10, was jailed for public protection. He will serve at least four years behind bars, and will only be released – on a life licence – when the authorities no longer consider him to be dangerous.

Judge Michael Pert QC told Lawrence: "Your behaviour has escalated in a way that's terrifying."

Lawrence was sentenced via a live video link with HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes, where he is detained.

Prosecutor Felicity Gerry said the elderly victim was "a shell of her former self".

She never returned to her bungalow in Hinckley, and is being looked after by relatives.

Her health has suffered and she still cries about what happened, the court was told.

In a police video played at trial, she described finding a burglar in her bedroom. "I started squealing," she said. "He jumped on top of me. He put a pillow over my face for quite a while. He tried to rape me."

Her phone was ripped out.

Battered and bruised, she got dressed when she was able to and went to a nearby residential home for help.

Lawrence, a quarry machinery worker, of no fixed address but formerly of the Earl Shilton area, was 17 at the time.

He was on remand for the attempted rape when he escaped from a young offender institute in West Yorkshire, on October 3. He stole keys and a car in a burglary in Cleveland and was spotted in Earl Shilton the next day.

Police officers, armed with Tasers, went from house to house searching gardens and sheds while the force helicopter hovered overhead.

He was found hiding in a house. On October 21, Lawrence broke out of a young offender institute near Wigan.

He was apprehended in Birmingham three days later.

In June, a jury found Lawrence guilty of attempted rape and sexually assault of the pensioner, which he denied.

He admitted burgling the pensioner's home and stealing a TV and jewellery, while two accomplices, Curtis Brewin (18) and Alix Moore (20), stood outside as he passed them items, on September 23 last year.

Brewin and Moore, both of Church Lane, Barwell, admitted burglary, but had no knowledge of the sex attack. Brewin was given a 12-month youth rehabilitation order with supervision and Moore was given a 12-month detention sentence, suspended for a year.

Lawrence further admitted two escapes, four burglaries, and asked for seven other offences to be considered.

Matthew Lowe, defending, said: "He's a deeply troubled and a deeply troubling young man."

His mother committed suicide when he was young and his father left him and his siblings on the doorstep of social services when he was seven.

Lawrence will be on a sex offender register for life.