A MOTHER-of-two, who was the victim of a terrifying sex assault, told last night how she was now too nervous to go out alone with her children.

The 15-year-old attacker, who pounced on the woman as she was out walking with her children, was yesterday found guilty of attempted rape and indecent assault at Teesside Crown Court.

The married woman, who is in her 30s, was attacked as she walked the family dog along the popular Green Lane bridleway in Darlington.

Her two children were cycling ahead at the time.

After the verdict, the woman spoke of her relief that the Darlington schoolboy - who cannot be identified because of his age - had been found guilty.

But she said the ordeal, in which she feared she was going to die, had left her life in ruins. "I used to be optimistic, confident and trusting," she said. "Now I lack confidence.

"I haven't walked the dog since that day, and I can't go out on my own with the girls any more. I have trouble sleeping every single night, and every night I go through the attack again in my head. When I do sleep, I have nightmares."

She added: "I think there is something very, very wrong with that boy.

"He was very calculating when he was attacking me, and I think it was an assault about control not sex. He's a very dangerous person."

Anna Richardson, prosecuting, told the court that the attack took place on May 7 last year, a sunny Bank Holiday, when the victim was "nearly raped and was subjected to a humiliating sexual ordeal". Her children did not witness the assault.

As she bent over to put the lead on her dog, she noticed a youth crouching in the undergrowth. He leapt out, grabbing her by the shoulders, and they struggled violently.

Miss Richardson said that the woman was pushed into the nettles and bushes where the youth then tried to rape her, before subjecting her to a serious sexual assault.

The woman, she said, was "absolutely terrified" throughout the attack.

In her statement, which was read to the court, the victim said: "I thought I was going to die. I didn't know what he was capable of."

After the assault, the boy fled, and the woman ran to nearby Glebe Road, where two men stopped to help her and the police were called.

The teenager denied the charges, but the court heard that DNA evidence had proved there was only a one-in-a-billion chance the attack could have been committed by someone else.

No defence evidence was called and Rod Hunt, for the boy, said he had not been in trouble before.

Judge Peter Fox adjourned the case for three weeks for pre-sentence reports.