A SCHOOLBOY who became sexually obsessed with his elderly neighbour broke into her home at night and danced naked as she lay in bed.
The terrified woman woke to find the 15-year-old in her bedroom calling out: "I love you, I love you".
The incident happened just hours after the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had exposed himself to his victim while he pretended to be rescuing his dog.
He has been electronically tagged and put under curfew as part of a year-long court order that will provide round-the-clock support to help him change his behaviour.
At Sunderland Magistrates Court on Friday the boy admitted a charge of trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence.
Michael Rose, prosecuting, said the problems started when the youth appeared in the victim's back garden claiming to have climbed over a fence to retrieve his family's pet dog.
As the back garden has no gate and the only way to get in or out from outside is to scale the fence, she let him out through her home and out of the front door.
A few days later, on Saturday, August 25, he returned to the woman's garden using the same excuse - but this time wearing just a towel.
As the woman let him out through the house again, the boy's towel fell off and he stood in front of her naked and smirking. She ordered him out of her home and locked the door, the court heard at a previous hearing.
That night she woke suddenly when she heard a male voice saying her name.
The boy was naked and his horrified victim asked him how he had got into her bedroom.
He told her he had climbed through the bathroom window, before again exposing himself to her, then telling her he loved her.
She told him to get out, but the next morning she found a letter from the boy downstairs in which he declared his love for her.
Mr Rose read the letter to magistrates. It stated: "I'm really sorry for what happened last night, don't tell anyone.
"I love you more than anything in the world. I think you are the prettiest woman in the world. I hope we can be friends."
Mitigating for the boy, Jason Smith said his client admitted being naked in the woman's bedroom, but denied exposing himself to his victim earlier that day.
Magistrates sentenced the youth to a 12-month supervision order linked to the Government's Intensive Supervision and Surveillance programme. He must be electronically tagged and cannot leave the house between 8pm and 7am for three months.
He was also ordered to pay £60 costs and his parents were put under a parenting order.
Since the break-in the boy and his family have moved out of the area.
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