An 87-year-old North-East widow was woken from her sleep and subjected to a terrifying sex attack by a naked intruder, a court heard yesterday.

Frances Doran was so traumatised by her ordeal that she later had a heart attack .

Her attacker Michael Rochester was jailed for nine years by judge Michael Cartlidge yesterday.

He had admitted the appalling assault after police tracked him down through an Asda fleece jacket he left in Mrs Doran's bedroom.

The former cleaner realised she had an intruder when she was grabbed by the ankles as she slept in her sheltered flat in Sunderland last November.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how drunken builder's merchant Rochester, 27, wandered into her home after finding easy access due to a faulty lock. He then then stripped naked before subjecting frail Mrs Doran to a horrifying ordeal as she choked on her nightdress, which he pulled over her head.

Prosecutor John Aitken told the court how the partially sighted widow was so confused and petrified by the ordeal that she lay in her bed until morning before summoning help.

Rochester, of Hardgate Road, Hill View, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to assault, indecent assault and attempted rape at an earlier hearing.

While police were hunting her attacker Mrs Doran, whose shipyard worker husband John died in 1982 aged 72, waived her right to anonymity.

She took the courageous and unsual step in the hope it would lead to his capture.

In mitigation Robin Patton said: "He went in there to this day he claims not to know why, but he went in and he puts it down to drink."

"He doesn't know what was going through his mind."