A “CREEPY” predator followed a lone woman before he barged his way into her home and carried out a terrifying sex attack.
Devon Critchlow was captured on CCTV skulking through the darkness with his hood up when he spotted the victim.
The 21-year-old then changed direction and began tailing the woman, who was aged in her 50s, as she made her way home.
Critchlow pushed his way into the property and launched into a violent sex attack – strangling the victim as he held her down.
The woman feared she would be raped or killed during the horror.
She bravely managed to fight the fiend off and later told police the stranger had forced his way in and assaulted her.
After he was arrested, Critchlow told police: “I was struggling with violent thoughts and she was the unlucky target.”
He has now been jailed for five years and three months with a five year extended licence.
The predator pleaded guilty to assault, intentional strangulation and sexual assault.
Judge Edward Bindloss told him: “It was a violent, ferocious, persistent assault in her own home when she was vulnerable after a night out, you having followed her.”
Newcastle Crown Court heard the victim had been making her way back from a night out when the horror unfolded.
A witness who saw Critchlow near the scene of the attack told police she noticed him because he was “creepy”.
Critchlow knocked on the victim’s door then barged past her when she opened it before shoving her to the ground.
Prosecutor Jolyon Perks said: “He had straddled her and punched her with his fists continuously.
“He had pulled at her bra, snapping it. He slapped at her face when she was trying to kick him off her.
“He grabbed her with such force around the neck that she thought ‘he’s going to kill me’.
“She continued to fight against him. She couldn’t remember when he left but remembered lying on her back and realising he had gone.
“It wouldn’t have stopped had she not been courageous enough to keep on fighting.”
When police were called to her home, they found blood on the floor in the hallway.
The woman was left with extensive facial bruising and swelling, cuts and a wound to her torso.
Critchlow will also spend the rest of his life on the Sex Offenders’ Register and was handed a restraining order to protect the victim.
Detective Sergeant Steven Gibson, of Northumbria Police, said: “This was a truly shocking and awful incident for the victim who appeared to be targeted for the sole reason that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I want to stress just how rare these types of incidents are in our region – and when reports such as these come in, we work quickly and doggedly to identify offenders as we did in this case.
“We won’t tolerate the type of predatory behaviour exhibited by Critchlow that night – and I’m glad to see he’s now behind bars.”
