A TEENAGER sexually assaulted another care home resident within weeks of being moved there after a similar attack in a different establishment.
Andrew Skidmore was moved from a home for trying to have sex with a younger boy in May 2009, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.
He repeatedly asked the 15- year-old about sex, suggested they have it, and told him: “It’s all right, you know, I’ve done stuff with people at my school.”
Three months later, at a new home on Teesside, Skidmore targeted a quiet, fellow 18-year-old, sat astride him and performed a sex act.
Skidmore, now 20, admitted two charges of sexual assault and was given an indefinite hospital order by Judge Les Spittle. The court heard how when he was 13, he indecently touched a male classmate when the pair of them were left alone and was warned by police.
Judge Spittle said jailing Skidmore was not an option because of his complex problems, which include autism and a detachment disorder.
He will have to stay in hospital, where he will be given treatment for his conditions, until experts are convinced he is no longer a danger to the public.
The judge told Skidmore, of High Street, Redcar: “You have a condition that needs help... you need some training, you need to learn some skills.
“If you do not do that, then you are likely to repeat behaviour.
It could have very serious consequences for you and, potentially, for your victims.”
Psychiatrist Dr Helen Pearce said it would not be possible for Skidmore to receive the help he needs in prison.
She said he learns through “social modelling” and his barrister, Deborah Sherwin, said many experts had previously misdiagnosed him.
The judge said of a jail sentence: “He might learn things that are better he does not learn. For him, prison could be an academy.”
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