A ROBBER who attacked an 83-year-old woman in the street was jailed for seven years yesterday.

The victim of the handbag robbery, Winifred Stanley, is now too frightened to go out of her home alone, said Robert Terry, prosecuting.

Heroin addict Lee Pattison, 26, was caught on security camera when he ripped her bag from her grasp as she went to buy a morning paper in Stockton. He escaped with £20 but police recognised him from the footage.

He had convictions going back to when he was 11, most from attempts to feed his drug addiction, said Jamie Hill, defending.

At Teesside Crown Court, Judge John Walford said: "The people of Middlesbrough are tired of hearing of attacks in the street on elderly people by drug addicts.

"You targeted an elderly woman, 83-years-of-age, as she walked to the newsagents to get her newspaper in the morning.

"You used violence to seize her handbag from her grasp and, as is apparent from the statement she gave to police, that action of yours had a profound effect on her."

Pattison, of Piper Knowle Road, Stockton, was jailed for seven years after he pleaded guilty to the May 7 robbery, as well as nine burglaries and handling stolen goods charges, but he was first ordered to serve 514 days left from his last sentence.