KNIFE FIEND CAGED FOR RAID ON OAP.

Byline: IAN SHARP

A JUNKIE who attacked and robbed an 80 year old in her home was jailed for 10 years yesterday.

Judge Lord McEwan told Thomas Fadian, 29, he had carried out a "scandalous, wicked and vicious" assault on his victim.

Fadian had denied forcing his way into Jeannie Anderson's home and kicking her before robbing the pensioner at knifepoint of her handbag and just pounds 5.

But a jury found him unanimously guilty at the High Court in Glasgow after hearing how his DNA was on a cigarette butt found in the close at Jeannie's address in Foxbar, Paisley.

Prosecutor Robert McCreadie said that Fadian, of Glenburn, Paisley, carried out the attack on April 16 this year - only 12 days after being released from a six-year sentence for assault and robbery.

Witnesses told the court how Fadian, who was desperate for cash to buy heroin, bragged later how he had "screwed" a house and robbed an old woman of her handbag.

Fadian admitted 38 previous convictions for theft and housebreaking and two of assault and robbery.

Jailing Fadian, Lord McEwan told him: "You have a spectacular record of previous offences and it is time you were taken out of circulation for a long time."