Local News
Woman's attacker jailed
A MAN who broke into an elderly woman's flat armed with a ten-inch kitchen knife has been jailed for more than three-and-a-half years.
Kathleen Morris, 69, of Telford Court, , was too frightened to leave her flat following the armed burglary last July, a court heard.
Desmond Asafo-Adjei, 28, was found guilty of aggravated burglary at Crown Court on May 12 and reappeared there for sentencing on Friday.
Judge Marie Catterson took into account his eight previous offences, which include affray, burglary and possession of heroin, as well as the fact that he had been on bail for carrying a knife in city centre when he broke into Telford Court.
While he had not committed violence or used the knife, she said the break-in had left his victim traumatised and afraid.
Mrs Morris told a jury last month how she had run down the corridor screaming and banged on neighbours' doors after finding a man in her flat.
The pensioner, who had suffered a stroke some five weeks before, was listening to the radio through earphones when the intruder entered her flat at about 2.45am on July 18 last year.
Mrs Morris, who lives on the fifth floor of the 11-storey tower block in Alma Road, broke down in tears as she told the court of her ordeal. "I was just so frightened; I just kept screaming and screaming," she said.
In a letter to the judge, read out after the proceedings, Mrs Morris told how her grandchildren no longer felt safe staying in the flat, which she had bought to be near them.
She wrote: "I have never experienced an ordeal like it."
Asafo-Adjei must serve a minimum of three years and 228 days before he can be considered for release by a parole board.
12:03pm Monday 3rd July 2006
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