TWO teenagers have admitted breaking into a 65-year-old woman's home and raping her in an attack that shocked the country.

David Humphrey and Lee Beazley pleaded guilty to raping the frail widow at her home in Marton, Middlesbrough, last year.

The pair, who are both 19, also pleaded guilty to threatening the terrified pensioner with a knife.

Appearing before a judge at Teesside Crown Court yesterday they admitted a charge of aggravated burglary in which a knife was used, and a mobile phone, jewellery and cash were stolen.

But they denied two further joint charges of rape and an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The break-in and subsequent assault on September 29 last year caused widespread revulsion throughout the country.

The attack was so savage that one senior detective said: "Short of murder, this is the worst attack I have dealt with in 26 years of police service."

Police even called on the criminal underworld to help their investigation.

The woman, who lived alone, was threatened, beaten and raped before her home was ransacked.

She had been watching television alone when she was attacked. After the assault, she managed to drag herself to a telephone to make a 999 call.

She was later treated for severe facial injuries and trauma at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

Police described the assault as "degrading and humiliating" and revealed that the woman's ordeal had lasted several hours.

The attack prompted Acting Detective Inspector Paul Richardson to appeal directly to the underworld.

He said: "I'm sure those in the criminal fraternity will be sickened by this, as we are.

"If anyone from the criminal fraternity wants to speak to me personally, they can contact the incident room and ask for me."

Yesterday, counsel for the defendants argued that the pair should not be brought before the court because their lawyers wanted more time.

They claimed the defence had not been served with forensic evidence from the prosecution.

But the Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, allowed the charges to be read to them.

He said Humphrey, of Deepdale Avenue, Middlesbrough, and Beazley, of Dalcross Court, Hemlington, would be sentenced for the crimes they had admitted at the end of the trial into the matters for which they pleaded not guilty.

The judge said he aimed to fix a date for any possible trial by the end of next week.

He remanded both defendants into custody.