COP STARTS FUND FOR RAPE VICTIM.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

LANCASTER - So brutal was last week's rape of a 62-year-old grandmother that Detective Dan Prestwich did something he has never done in 28 years in law enforcement.

Prestwich opened a bank account for the victim and is collecting donations to replace some of the possessions destroyed in the fire the masked intruder set before fleeing the woman's apartment.

``He took her dignity and her security,'' he said. ``He was going to burn another human being for property.''

Prestwich said the crime was the most brutal he has seen, outside murders, during his career.

The woman freed herself and was not injured in the fire. She has moved in with relatives.

Grandmother S, as she is now being called, baby-sat her toddler granddaughter while the little girl's mother was at work. The fire destroyed some of the toddler's toys.

``When her granddaughter picked up her teddy bear, burned and sopping wet, and said, 'My teddy' ... I'm a dad. That really got to me. I think it got to everyone else here, too,'' Prestwich said.

A 20-year-old Lancaster man, who had been friends with the woman's son and for a time had lived with them, was arrested hours after the incident.

The attack occurred about 4 a.m. Tuesday in the woman's Sunset Ridge apartment on 16th Street West. She awoke to a masked man binding her hands with tape. For at least three hours the attacker ransacked her home, forced her to watch explicit videos and sexually assaulted her.

Before driving off in the woman's car, the intruder set fires in the bathroom and bedroom, spreading newspapers around the floor to fuel the flames.

The woman managed to free herself and went to a neighbor's residence to call 911.

Although the attacker was wearing a mask, the grandmother identified his voice as that of Manuel Ayon, 21, who had been a friend of her son.

The son is now in the U.S. Army.

``(Her son) is over there helping our country. We can help out his family while he's gone,'' Prestwich said.

People can donate by making payments in the name of Grandmother S's Fund at any Wells Fargo branch office. A donation box is also set up at the Lancaster Sheriff's Station.

For more information, contact the Lancaster sheriff's station at [phone].