A teenager who absconded from a residential school before launching a vicious murder bid on a pensioner in her home will be detained for four years.
The youth robbed his 85-year-old victim of £80, before repeatedly stabbing her with a knife from her own kitchen.
A judge told the teenager: “This was a terrible crime.
“It was a vicious, brutal and cowardly attack on a defenceless elderly woman.”
Wound detail was ‘excruciating’
Lord Richardson told the High Court in Edinburgh that listening to the description of the wounds inflicted on the victim at an earlier court hearing was “excruciating”.
The judge said 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.
Lord Richardson said: “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 reports prepared on the teenager – who cannot be identified for legal reasons and has previous convictions for knife possession and battery – concluded he poses a high likelihood of reoffending.
He said he took into account the teenager’s difficult upbringing, mental health problems and apparently genuine remorse.
Sentencing guidelines required he take into account the best interests of such a young offender and his prospects for rehabilitation.
But the judge told the youth because of the “extreme gravity” of the crime he considered 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.
Escaped from secure school
The boy, now 16, earlier admitted entering his victim’s cottage home near Montrose on September 15 last year and repeatedly striking her with a knife to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the the danger of her life, attempting to murder her and robbing her of £80.
Advocate depute Gavin Anderson said: “The complainer has previously stated that she was traumatised by the events and would never feel safe within her home address.”
The prosecutor said the teenager was made the subject of a care order in 2012 in Birmingham and had become a resident at the school in Scotland in late 2020.
He said: “The accused was not subject to fully secure conditions, although was supervised when within school premises and in the grounds.”
Before the murder bid the teenager told a school staff member he was going to get a train back Birmingham and broke free and ran off, despite an attempt to take hold of him.
Police were contacted.
Repeatedly stabbed despite cash offer
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 had not heard him enter and told him to leave.
She noticed he was holding a knife 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.”
Mr Anderson told the court: “It is the accused’s position that at that point the complainer waved her walking stick at him.
“The complainer denies having done so and denies that she even had her walking stick with her at that point.”
The teenager then said, “like this, like this,” as he began stabbing her with the knife.
The pensioner continued to tell him to leave her alone and pleaded: “Please go away.”
When she realised she had been stabbed, she began screaming and the intruder threw the knife down and fled.
Stabs wounds in chest and stomach
The victim called 999 and attempted to contact her daughters and neighbours as she waited for the emergency services.
Police found the teenager’s DNA on the bloodstained knife.
A sledgehammer brought by the teenager and other knives were in the kitchen.
The victim was taken to hospital where wounds to her chest and stomach were treated and she was discharged a week later.
The youth was detained in the early hours of September 16 after he was spotted walking on the A92 road towards Montrose.
Defence counsel Mark Stewart QC said the teenager has been receiving additional help for ADHD.
He said: “He cannot understand why he did what he did.
“He is shocked by it.”
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