A PROSTITUTE who indecently assaulted a man with learning difficulties and preyed on other men in a town centre has been jailed for two years.

Former heroin addict Nicola Morris will also be placed on the sex offenders' register for seven years and be made subject to an anti-social behaviour order for two years after a jury found her guilty of groping the man.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Morris, a mother of three, preyed on vulnerable men by approaching them in the street and offering them sex, before stealing their wallets when they refused.

She targeted a 57-year-old man with learning difficulties in Middlesbrough on March 18 last year, and put her hands down his trousers as he struggled to free himself, before she stole money from his coat pocket.

The victim, who cannot be named, was left distressed by the incident.

Only 15 minutes after the attack, Morris approached a 78-year-old man in Clarendon Road, in the town, and offered him sex, before she cuddled him, unzipped his jacket and stole his wallet.

On May 29 last year, she pestered a 69-year-old man in the town centre and stole his pension money after she had offered to have sex with him for £10 and he refused.

Just over a month later, Morris used the same technique to accost a drunken man in his forties in Linthorpe Road and attempted to steal his wallet before she was arrested. A jury of nine men and three women took 30 minutes yesterday to find her guilty of indecent assault.

The 23-year-old, of Hartford Street, Middlesbrough, had already pleaded guilty to two counts of theft.

Ian West, prosecuting, applied for an anti-social behaviour order to be made on her and said: "This lady is a thorough nuisance."

Johanne Kidd, in defence, said her client had suffered traumatic events in the past year, including being diagnosed with cancer and the death of her brother, Craig, in a high-speed police chase. She said: "The root of all her problems is the drug addiction."

Jailing Morris for two years, Judge John Walford said: "Those who were victims were either or both elderly, mentally impaired or drunk.

"You showed yourself to be unscrupulous, lawless and capable of committing mean offences."