He must register as a sex offender for life
Andrew Pennington admitted attempted rape, indecent assault and burglary with intent to steal at the woman’s home(Image: Humberside Police)
A menacing and violent sexual predator secretly hid inside a woman’s home late at night before suddenly leaping out on her, confronting her and telling her that he was going to rape her. He threatened to break her neck and kill her during the horrific attack and she was “terrified” and screaming during the ordeal, Hull Crown Court heard.
Andrew Pennington, 62, of High Street, Rawcliffe, near Goole, but recently in custody on remand, admitted attempted rape, indecent assault and burglary with intent to steal at the woman’s home in 1998. He also admitted another offence of burglary in 1997.
Judge John Thackray KC said that the woman was at her home in East Yorkshire and was having a lengthy telephone call with a friend between 9.30pm and 12.30am. The front door was locked but the back door was not locked.
At about 11pm, she heard a clicking sound as if someone had picked up the receiver of an extension phone in the dining room. Pennington cut the telephone wire.
He had entered the house and was listening to the telephone conversation. “That indicates beyond doubt that you were waiting in the house for almost two hours,” said Judge Thackray.
After the woman ended the call to her friend, Pennington leapt out of the dining room doorway and confronted her in the entrance hall. “She must have been terrified,” said Judge Thackray.
“You grabbed her by her neck, you pulled her to the floor. She screamed. You threatened to ‘f***ing kill’ her if she screamed again. She was on her hands and knees.
“She was pleading with you, telling you that you could take anything.” Pennington told her: “Talk again and I’ll kill you, b***h.”
Pennington pulled her hair, banged her head on the floor two or three times and told her: “I’m going to f***ing rape you.” He kissed her and he told her: “Stay there, you b***h, or I’ll break your f***ing neck.”
Pennington intimately touched her, took her shirt off and bit her. “You began to pull down her trousers,” said Judge Thackray.
“She was in a panic.” Another occupant of the house returned. “She bravely yelled out, which brought the incident to an end, no thanks to you. You fled.
“You were chased but you escaped, leaving your victim with physical injuries. She was incredibly brave. Your offending has had, beyond doubt, a profound, severe impact on her. She had to move house.”
Pennington had been jailed for 10 years in 2018, including eight years for rape and a consecutive two years for burglary, dating back to 1988. “For the second time in your life, your violent sexual offending has caught up with you,” said Judge Thackray.
Pennington was arrested for the attempted rape and other offences after the police revisited the case many years later, in September last year. DNA from the woman’s clothes was found and it matched Pennington, police discovered.
No evidence was available at the time of the original offences, meaning that he could not, at that time, be arrested. He was finally arrested and interviewed before being remanded in custody.
The woman said in a statement that she read to the court that the immediate impact of the attack was “profound” on her. “I no longer felt safe in my own home,” she said.
“I lived in fear that the man who attacked me might come back. I was constantly on edge.” The fear followed her when she went out and she looked at men in pubs, wondering if they were the attacker.
She got a baseball bat to put under her bed and she kept a knife while she was watching TV. “I was constantly listening out,” she said.
She had a lack of trust in her instincts and struggled to relax at home. “The impact of what has happened has never left me,” she said.
Charlotte Baines, mitigating, said that Pennington had been drinking “heavily and regularly” at the time as a coping mechanism after a bereavement. “He has expressed genuine remorse for his offending behaviour,” said Miss Baines.
Pennington suffered difficulties with personal and intimate relationship at the time but he was now married. “There has been no offending of a sexual nature for a period of nearly 28 years,” said Miss Baines.
Pennington recognised that the victim had suffered severe psychological harm. There were references for him and he had been working before his remand in custody.
Pennington was jailed for 14 years and he must register as a sex offender for life.