A teenage girl who terrorised elderly women in a string of attacks was yesterday sent to a young offenders' centre - where she has been enjoying swimming and trampolining.

A court heard that she had enjoyed her time on remand at Aycliffe Children's Centre, County Durham, so much that she wanted to be sent back there to serve her sentence.

Her defence barrister said her spell in the centre had been the first time she had been truly happy in the past two years.

The judge told her that he had never come across such serious offences in someone so young, but agreed that she should be returned there to serve her four-year sentence.

The girl, from South Tyneside, targeted 90-year-old Amy Hall in South Shields shopping centre. She offered to push wheelchair-bound Mrs Hall around a store while her husband, Fred, paid for his shopping.

But instead of waiting outside, the girl wheeled terrified Mrs Hall to a housing estate.

She emptied a garden shed and pushed Mrs Hall inside, after slapping her three times and robbing her of her possessions.

The girl, who was arrested later, was already on bail for a series of distraction burglaries on the elderly. These included five break-ins in Manchester and three at a shel- tered accommodation block in Hebburn, South Tyneside.

The victims were aged between 73 and 90 and in one case a 90-year-old woman, who is registered blind, suffered an angina attack as the teenager pushed her way into her home.

At Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, Judge David Hodson said: "I don't think I have ever come across a person so young having committed offences so serious."

Ailsa MacDonald, defending, said she was immature and from a troubled family, but was now making good progress at the centre.

Mark Guliani, prosecuting, said the girl admitted seven burglaries, two attempted burglaries, an offence of robbery and false imprisonment.