As horrifying a crime as you can imagine
Judge’s shock as he jails man who tried to rape deaf and blind woman of 94
A BURGLAR was jailed for 14 years yesterday after he was caught attempting to rape a deaf and blind woman of 94.
Gregory Willis was disturbed by the great-grandmother’s horrified family.
Jailing the 26-year-old yesterday, a judge described the circumstances surrounding the crime as among the most ‘deeply shocking, horrifying and appalling as could possibly be imagined’.
Judge John Pini QC added: ‘The victim is 94 years of age. She had not long before this left a nursing home to be cared for in a safe, loving environment for the remaining time of her life.
‘She was registered blind, hard of hearing, had no short-term memory, had poor balance and was doubly incontinent. She could not com- municate. She was as frail and vulnerable as it is possible to be.’
Following the sentencing, the victim’s son-in-law, who stopped the attack, said he was ‘shocked and stunned that somebody could intend on doing such a thing’.
The victim had been sleeping on a hospital trolley in the front room of her son- in- law’s home, having been left virtually bedridden since suffering a fall.
A court heard drunken Willis had stumbled into the property on a middle class residential estate at 12.30am by trying an open door as a family gathering wound down.
The victim, a former medical secretary and wartime Wren who cannot be named for legal reasons, was asleep when Willis, a father of five, crept in as family members chatted in another room, prosecutor Jonathan Straw said.
When the woman’s granddaughter noticed the front door was open relatives went to investigate, and found Willis in a state of undress on the widow’s bed.
The prosecutor said: ‘Had he not been disturbed, as mercifully he was, he was going to rape that 94year-old lady in that bed.’
Willis was chased out of the house in Grantham, Lincolnshire, but returned soon afterwards while the woman’s relatives were still on the phone to police. Officers arrived moments later and arrested him nearby, discovering a set of car keys from the property in his pocket.
Willis, of Grantham, has multiple previous convictions including theft, burglary and criminal damage. At the time of the attempted rape he was on bail for another burglary committed in December 2015, which he later admitted.
In relation to the incident last August, he denied attempted rape but was found guilty by a jury following a trial. He admitted burglary in relation to the car keys.
The trial at Lincoln Crown Court heard that the great-grandmother died four months after the incident but her death was not connected with the attempted rape.
Mark Watson, mitigating, said Willis apologised for what he did. ‘He was plainly under the influence of something,’ said the lawyer. ‘There is nothing about the offence that he can remember.’
Following the case, the victim’s son-in-law said: ‘We don’t know how much of what happened registered with her. We just have to hope she didn’t suffer in any way.’