TWO drunken men played a game of "rock, paper, scissors" to decide who would snatch a woman's handbag.

David Tawse and Sam Breakwell hatched a plot to snatch the 55-year-old's bag because they were penniless and hungry.

The victim - yards from her home when the pair struck - has kept a diary since the attack which tells of her torment.

In one entry, on the day of the mugging attempt, she wrote: "Emotional, tearful, angry, outraged and overwhelmed."

She told how she is terrified to leave the house and panics when she sees anyone in a hooded top or someone approaches her in the street.

Tawse, 22, from North Yorkshire, and 19-year-old Breakwell, from Darlington, were jailed for 12 months at Teesside Crown Court.

The judge, Recorder Michael Slater, told them: "She would be outraged if, after what she had been through, I simply allowed you your liberty."

The court heard how the woman was walking home in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, when the friends spotted her.

They had already decided to rob someone because their plan to sell DVDs to raise money had not made them as much as they wanted.

The pair told police after their arrest last month that they had been drinking at a friend's home before they struck.

Prosecutor Sue Jacobs said the victim noticed she was being followed in Valley Road, felt anxious and tried to take her keys from her bag.

She held on tightly to the handbag when she heard the footsteps behind her quicken, and feared she was going to be robbed.

After feeling a tug, she turned and saw Tawse in his hoody. She screamed to alert neighbours and had a tug-of-war with the mugger.

Tawse and Breakwell ran off to a nearby pub, but were arrested half an hour later in a park after witnesses gave police descriptions of them.

Tom Mitchell, for Tawse, of Cockpit Hill, Brompton, near Northallerton, said: "This sort of offence causes misery to people. It was dreadful."

In her impact statement, the victim said: "I still feel the same anxiety when walking alone anywhere, which is unavoidable when walking to work.

"Before this incident,I had no anxiety about walking around the town at any time. Now, I worry, especially when walking in the dark."

Mr Mitchell said: "In so far as they can make amends, these young men have done all they can.

"Having done the harm he did, he can do no more to put it right, after his frank admissions to the police and his early guilty plea."

Andrew White, for Breakwell, of Borough Road, Darlington, added: "The victim will have known from an early stage that she would not need to come to court to relive this incident."

Both defence lawyers said the attackers had shown genuine remorse, and Breakwell - who has never before been in trouble - wanted to write to the woman to apologise.

Mr White said: "At the time of the offence, his personal circumstances were pretty desperate. He had nowhere to live, he was sleeping rough on occasions.

"He had lost his job, had no money for food, no benefits, and he was extremely hungry. He had not eaten for several days."

Mr Mitchell added: "Mr Tawse had not eaten for two days. This was an attempt to get something to try to eat.

"That's no excuse. You cannot resort to robbery just because you are hungry."

The pair both pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted robbery at an earlier court hearing.

Mr Recorder Slater told them: "You hatched a plan, because of your financial situation, to target someone exactly like her to snatch their bag and take money from it.

"So it was when she came into your view that you targeted her and followed her for about 500 yards as she was on her way home.

"At some stage, she became aware of that, and frightened, she got out her house keys, but not before you Tawse, after a game of paper, scissors, had elected to be the one who snatched the bag.

"If I was simply concerned with the situation of each of you, given your previous good characters and given you are still young men and you have seen the error of your ways, I would try to do something that involved not sending you to immediate custody, but I cannot do that because I have the concerns regarding the complainant to address first and foremost."