Sex attacker is jailed

A sex attacker who indecently assaulted an 80-year-old widow was jailed for seven years.

The judge described Steven Gilbert as a threat to women in the community.

Stafford crown court heard that 20-year-old Gilbert also attacked a woman in the grounds of the town's former St George's hospital.

He put a towel round her throat and tried to drag her off into bushes.

He had fantasised about sexually abusing her, but a passer-by came to her rescue and Gilbert fled.

Police later found him hiding in bushes in the hospital grounds, the court heard.

Register as a sex offender

The indecent assault on the pensioner happened in her sheltered home in Stafford a few weeks earlier.

Gilbert, of Izaak Walton Close, Stafford, admitted charges of indecent assault and assault causing actual bodily harm.

He asked for nine offences of indecent exposure to be taken into consideration.

Gilbert was also ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life after Judge John Warner said he was a threat to women in the community.

Gilbert had been honest with the police and psychiatrist about his offences, the court was told.