"Cannabis-addicted boy" rapes an old woman

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A teenager who has been hooked on cannabis since he was 10 has been locked up indefinitely after raping a 58-year-old woman in her own home.
Jordan Webster, 15, who has a shocking catalogue of 63 previous convictions and 38 court appearances, was just 14 when he attacked the woman while holding a knife to her throat.

His actions prompted a judge to ask: 'What on earth are we coming to in this world when a boy of 14 can not only acquire that record but then go on to do what you did that day?


Judge Kerry Macgill ordered that Webster should be named, even though he is a juvenile.

Sentencing the teenager at Leeds Crown Court, the judge said: 'When I see that from the age of 10 you have been taking cannabis on a regular basis and even at 14 you were taking cocaine and ecstasy, any right-thinking person is going to think there has got to be something wrong in our society.

'It must be every victim's worst nightmare to awake from a deep sleep and find an intruder armed with a knife. It is truly a picture of horror.

'You have had such an awful effect on this lady's life.'

The court had heard that Webster broke into the woman's house in Normanton, West Yorkshire, in May. Just two weeks earlier she had had to remonstrate with him after catching him in her garden.

Neil Clark, prosecuting, told the court Webster probably entered through the kitchen window of the house, where his victim lived alone.

He armed himself with a knife from her kitchen before going up to her bedroom at around 4.30am.

Mr Clark said: 'She was awoken by the defendant, who was standing over her holding a knife with a three-inch blade.

'He said: 'Be quiet or I will slit your throat. Don't say anything or I will knife you.'
'She offered him money but he said it wasn't money he wanted, but sex'.

He then raped her, while at one point holding the knife to her throat.

The woman had offered him £5 in a desperate attempt to make him leave but Webster demanded the keys to her car. He also took the bed linen with him in an attempt to get rid of forensic evidence.
But on the way out of the woman's drive he crashed the car into a post, tearing off the wing mirror. Her neighbours heard the noise, looked out and saw Webster. One later picked him out at a police station identity parade.

Webster was caught soon after the attack, when he pulled out in front of a police patrol in the stolen car.

He led them on a mile and a half chase at speeds of 80mph.

When he was finally cornered, the aggressive youth even tried to attack a police dog - and was bitten on the leg.

The court hearing, on Friday, was told that DNA samples from the scene of the rape were a match to Webster. The chances of them coming from anyone else were one in a billion.

Prosecutor Mr Clark said: 'Since the incident, the woman has become very emotional, often tearful, and cannot return to her own home. In her victim impact statement she said 'The defendant has taken away my home, my independence and everything I have worked for'.'

He then told the court about Webster's past convictions. including an ASBO which had been breached on several occasions.

Matthew Harding, for Webster, said that while it was a particularly serious offence, the knife was not used to inflict violence. He also said the teenager, who admitted rape and aggravated burglary, does not remember much of the attack.

But Judge Macgill said: 'You knew full well the consequences of leaving behind forensic evidence and you took the sheet with you. What that illustrates to me is that your claim that you don't remember the detail is a total sham.'

He said Webster's actions had been 'callous, planned and selfish.'

The judge said Webster, of Normanton, must serve at least five years before he is eligible for parole.

He imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning him from Normanton and from contacting his victim. Webster will also be on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

-By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:39 AM on 20th October 2008


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