A MAN raped a 51-year-old woman as she slept on the sofa in her own home.
Karl Vickers, 40, of York Close, Clayton-le-Moors, may have targeted his victim, a mother-of-two, after watching her on a computer through a window, Burnley Crown Court heard.
The prosecution alleges he went into her home and stole her purse, a laptop and a cash card which he used at several banks in Great Harwood before returning to attack her on 16 January.
Vickers forced his terrified victim, who was in court to see him sentenced, to cover her eyes, telling her he had a knife, before locking her in a cupboard under the stairs.
Joanna Rodikif, prosecuting, told the court that the woman had awoken to find the defendant standing in front of her.
After he attacked her, Miss Rodikif said the woman could hear Vickers, in a paranoid state, wiping the floor. He claimed he was just removing his footprints.
He then pulled out her phone wires and locked her in her garden shed before escaping.
Detectives managed to trace Vickers through DNA analysis after they found a trace of semen on the kitchen floor which he later claimed had been planted there to frame him.
The court heard his victim, who has not been able to return home or work since the ordeal, still suffers nightmares and had to take medication for a bacterial infection after the rape.
Vickers, who has a large scar on his left cheek, appeared in court in a scruffy black tracksuit top and jeans. He has more than 100 previous convictions. At an earlier hearing he admitted two charges of rape, one of assault by penetration and burglary.
His case was adjourned for a trial over the facts after Vickers denied he had been the original burglar and disputed telling a probation officer he had targeted his victim.
He was remanded in custody until Monday.
Michael Murray, defending Vickers, said that his psychiatric report stated he felt shame and guilt and that he knew his actions would have a significant and lifelong impact on his victim’s life.
