A PENSIONER seriously injured after a schoolboy tried to mug her today told of her "devastation" after the 15-year-old walked free from court.

The attempted robbery on an escalator in Burnley's indoor market, left Freda Wilkinson with two fractures of her arm and a broken collar bone. She later had to have an artificial shoulder fitted.

Burnley Crown Court heard how her attacker had "difficulties in life" and had taken an overdose.

But his 66-year-old victim said afterwards: "I think he should have been sent down. We heard about all his troubles, but look at all the trouble he has put me through.

"Nobody is worried about that, are they? What would he have thought if it had been his mother?"

The victim, who is now scared to go far from her Padiham home, listened as Judge Edward Slinger admitted people may well be "disturbed" by his decision not to send the teenager to custody.

Judge Slinger said defendant Ashraful Islam's parents had tried to do their best to deal with his personal and medical problems, including sending him to see a professor of psychiatry in Bangladesh.

In July, the 15-year-old had taken an overdose and been admitted to hospital.

The judge told the court because of the boy's age he could only be sent to custody for a limited period and he would be likely to be targeted by older criminals, suffer violence and possibly encouraged to do the same sort of thing again.

He added he had got to decide what was best for the public and whether there was a way which would make a repetition of his behaviour less likely.

Judge Slinger, who said he had found the case an "extremely difficult sentencing exercise", placed the youth under a two-year supervision order and bound his father over in the sum of £250 for the same period.

Islam, of Schofield Close, Rawtenstall, earlier admitted attempted robbery, on May 24.

Kendal Lindley, prosecuting, said Mrs Wilkinson lost her husband of 45 years the Christmas before the attack and had a serious heart condition.

She had not been out for several months but was cajoled into going shopping by her daughter. As she got on an escalator to the Burnley indoor market, Islam grabbed her bag and tugged on it.

As Mrs Wilkinson held onto it, she was pulled backwards and ended in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

Roger Baldwin, defending, said if the offence had been committed by somebody considerably more mature it could have been considered wicked, but what Islam had done was "thoughtless and reckless". The robbery attempt was not planned.

After the hearing, Mrs Wilkinson said she was now scared to go out, was always looking over her shoulder and was undergoing physiotherapy three times a week.

She said she had gone to court because she wanted to see what her attacker looked like.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.