Youth caged for OAP murder bid

A TEENAGER who absconded from a residential school before attempting to murder a pensioner will be detained for four years.

The youth robbed his 85-yearold victim of £80 before repeatedly stabbing her with a knife from her own kitchen.

Lord Richardson told the High Court in Edinburgh the teenager, who was 15 at the time, had carried out the attack even after the woman had offered him all the money she had and opened a door so he could leave.

He said he took into account the teenager’s difficult upbringing, mental health problems and apparently genuine remorse.

But he told the youth the “extreme gravity” of the crime meant a custodial sentence was the only appropriate disposal.

He said he would have been sentenced to six years’ detention if convicted after trial but that would be reduced in light of his guilty plea.

He also ordered the teenager be monitored for a further three years and warned if he breached licence conditions during that period he could be returned to custody.

The boy, now 16, earlier admitted entering his victim’s home near Montrose last September and repeatedly striking her with a knife to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of her life, attempting to murder her and robbing her of £80.

The court heard the victim went into her kitchen to make a cup of tea before going to bed and was confronted by the youth, wearing a face covering.

She noticed he was holding a knife so took four £20 notes from her purse and told him to take it and leave.

The teenager took the cash but continued to brandish the knife.

She unlocked the back door and told him to put the knife down and told him: “You might stab somebody with it.”

The teenager then said: “like this, like this,” as he began stabbing her with the knife.

When she realised she had been stabbed, she began screaming and the intruder threw the knife down and fled.

She called 999 and attempted to contact her daughters and neighbours as she waited for the emergency services.

She was taken to hospital where wounds to her chest and stomach were treated and she was discharged a week later.

Defence counsel Mark Stewart QC said: “He cannot understand why he did what he did. He is shocked by it.”