Just 4 years for teen thug who tried to murder OAP

A TEENAGER who tried to murder a pensioner in her own home has been locked up for only four years.

The thug robbed Averil Hendry, 85, of £80 before repeatedly stabbing her with a kitchen knife.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted charges of robbery and attempted murder at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Judge Lord Richardson told the teenager: ‘This was a terrible crime. It was a vicious, brutal and cowardly attack on a defenceless elderly woman.’

He said the teenager, who was 15 at the time, attacked his victim after she offered him all the money she had and even opened a door so he could leave.

Lord Richardson added: ‘She will bear the scars, both physical and psychological, for the rest of her life. You have forever shattered the sense of security she had in her home.’

The judge said that reports prepared on the teenager concluded that at present he posed a high likelihood of reoffending.

He said he took into account the teenager’s difficult upbringing, mental health problems and that he appeared to be genuinely remorseful.

But the judge told the youth that because of the ‘extreme gravity’ of the crime he considered a custodial sentence the only appropriate disposal.

He also ordered that the teenager be monitored for a further three years.

The teenager admitted entering his victim’s cottage home in Montrose, Angus, on September 15 last year and repeatedly striking her with a knife, attempting to murder her and robbing her of £80. Advocate depute Gavin Anderson told the court the teenager was made the subject of a care order in 2012 in Birmingham and had become a resident at a school in Scotland in late 2020.

He said: ‘The accused was not subject to fully secure conditions, although was supervised within school premises.’

Before the murder bid, the teenager told a school staff member he was going to get a train to Birmingham and ran off despite an attempt to stop him. Police were contacted.

On the evening of the attack, the victim had gone into her kitchen to make a cup of tea before going to bed only to be confronted by the youth, who was wearing a face covering.

Mr Anderson said: ‘The complainer had not heard the accused enter the cottage. The complainer told the accused to leave.’

She noticed he was holding a knife and took four £20 notes from her wallet and told him if it was money he was after he should take it and leave. The intruder took the cash but continued to brandish the knife.

She unlocked the back door and told him: ‘You might stab somebody with it.’

The teenager said ‘Like this, like this,’ as he began stabbing her.

She began screaming and the intruder fled.

The victim called 999 and waited for the emergency services.

She was taken to hospital where wounds to her chest and stomach were treated. She was discharged on September 22 last year.

Police found a knife at the cottage, which yielded DNA from the youth on the handle.

He was detained in the early hours of September 16 walking on the A92 road heading for Montrose.

Defence counsel Mark Stewart, QC, said the teenager had been receiving additional help to cope with ADHD.

He said: ‘He cannot understand why he did what he did.’

‘You shattered her sense of security’