A burglar who was apprehended while attempting to rape a 94-year-old blind and deaf woman has been jailed for 14 years.
Gregory Willis, was caught kneeling on the woman’s bed without his trousers on, after he had already removed the grandmother’s lower clothes.
The judge John Pini, who presided over the case described Willis’ action as “deeply shocking, horrifying and appalling as could possibly be imagined.”
Judge John Pini also added, “The victim is 94 years of age. She had not long before this left a nursing home to be cared for in a safe, loving environment for the remaining time of her life.
“She was registered blind, hard of hearing, had no short term memory, had poor balance and was doubly incontinent. She could not communicate. She was as frail and vulnerable as it is possible to be.’
The the victim’s son-in-law told the Daily Mail after the sentencing that he was ‘shocked and stunned that somebody could intend on doing such a thing’.
The victim, who was so frail she could barely communicate, had been sleeping on a hospital trolley in the front room of her home, having been left virtually bedridden since suffering a fall, he added.
A drunken Willis had stumbled into the property on a middle class residential estate at 12.30am by trying an open door as a family gathering wound down.