Robber showed victim, 84, '˜no mercy' in attack - Leeds Crown Court

The pensioner believed she was going to die as she begged Leon Stanley for mercy during the late-night attack.

A court heard the elderly victim suffered serious psychological trauma and constantly lives in fear since the incident.

Jailing Stanley, 40, for eight years, judge Guy Kearl, QC, told the career criminal: “She believed you were going to kill her.

“She begged you to stop but you showed her no mercy and continued.”

Leeds Crown Court heard Stanley targeted the woman’s home in Ossett, Wakefield, just before midnight on October 17 last year.

The victim had just returned home from visiting her husband at his care home.

Carmel Pearson, prosecuting, said the woman was making herself something to eat in the kitchen when she heard an “explosion” and was showered with glass as he broke a kitchen window.

Stanley then threw a brick through the patio window and entered the property dressed in black.

The prosecutor said Stanley immediately picked up the metal kitchen stool and used it to knock her to the ground.

He continued to strike the woman was she lay defenceless on the floor.

She suffered bruising to her head, body and face.

Stanley left with the victim’s handbag and cash but was arrested after DNA evidence linked him to the attack.

He was out of prison on licence at the time of the incident for a burglary offence.

Stanley, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to robbery.

Narinder Rathour, mitigating, said Stanley had intended to carry out a burglary and did not think anyone would be in the property at the time.

Mr Rathour told the court: “There is nothing I can say that detracts or shies away from how unpleasant this offence was and how embarrassed and remorseful he is.”

The judge told Stanley that the victim continues to suffer from anxiety and lives in fear of being attacked again.