Attempted rape victim confronts attacker in court

A woman who was sexually assaulted nearly 30 years ago has faced her attacker in court and told him she had "lived in fear" ever since as she saw him being jailed for 14 years.

Andrew Pennington, now aged 62, entered the woman's home in Beverley, East Yorkshire, and violently threatened to rape and kill her in July 1998.

He had previously served a 10-year sentence for raping another woman and was jailed again at Hull Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting attempted rape and indecent assault.

His victim was commended for her bravery by the judge after she read out her impact statement in court in which she told Pennington his crime had even forced her to move out of her house.

"I no longer felt safe in my own home. I lived in fear that the man who attacked me might come back," she said.

The court heard this was the second time a cold case review by detectives had led to Pennington, from Rawcliffe in East Yorkshire, being jailed.

He was jailed for 10 years in March 2018 for a rape he committed in York in 1988.

Sentencing him on Wednesday, Judge John Thackray KC told the defendant: "For a second time in your life, your violent sexual offending has caught up with you."

He said the victim, who suffered physical injuries, had been "incredibly brave" to read her impact statement in court.

In it, the woman told Pennington: "My hope is that you will be appropriately held responsible and that you use the years and time ahead to reflect on the harm you've caused me and other people.

"I fell out of love with my home and [Beverley] became a place I no longer wanted to be."

She went on to say she sold her house, left Beverley and moved to Germany where she stayed for a number of years.

"Even now nearly three decades later any unexpected noise... gives me a sickening feeling," she added.

The court heard that Pennington got into the woman's property through an unlocked back door and jumped on her after she finished a phone call with a friend.

Prosecutor David Hall said he viciously assaulted her on the floor of the hallway and threatened to kill her when she screamed.

The petrified woman was on her "hands and knees" begging Pennington to "take anything you want" as she thought he was a burglar, Hall said.

During the expletive-ridden assault, he began to pull her trousers off and threatened to rape her, at which point the woman's lodger returned home.

Pennington then fled the scene and was chased on foot by the lodger, the court heard.

During the 2018 case, the court heard Pennington had stolen women's underwear during a string of burglaries in Beverley and DNA testing allowed police to link those crimes to the attack in York.

On Wednesday, the court was told of a similar burglary in which 15 pairs of knickers had been stolen from a house in Beverley in March 1997.

Pennington was sentenced for the attempted rape in Beverley after a DNA swab from the victim's clothing matched his following a review of the evidence.

He admitted attempted rape, indecent assault, burglary and theft, and burglary with intent to steal, at a court hearing last month.

Charlotte Baines, who was defending Pennington, told the court he was "genuinely remorseful" and a hard-working family man who had been out of trouble for 30 years.

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