A TEENAGER who carried out sex attacks on women in Glasgow over three weeks was given a lifelong restriction order yesterday.
Thomas Lyons, 17, is the youngest person in Scotland to receive the sentence, which is reserved for offenders who have not killed but are deemed a serious risk.
He will be released only when it is considered safe to do so, and will remain
under strict supervision for the rest of his life.
Lyons, of Yoker, Glasgow, had just turned 16 when he carried out the late-night attacks, targeting women who were walking alone and using a mobile phone. One victim was so traumatised that she took to sleeping with a knife under her pillow.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lyons admitted four charges of assaulting women with intent to rape them. The first attack, on 7 August, 2007, involved a woman, 27, who had been on her phone and listening to her iPod during a 45-minute walk to her home in Glasgow. Lyons grabbed her at the foot of the stairs in her block of flats, pushed her against a wall and kissed her. She screamed and he fled.
On 24 August, a 16-year-old girl got off a bus in Broomhill Drive and walked home, talking to a friend on her phone. As she was taking out her door keys, Lyons indecently assaulted her. The victim's friend on the phone could hear her screams.
Lyons was interrupted by a man entering the block, who held him against a wall. Lyons wriggled out of his T-shirt and fled bare-chested.
The other two assaults were committed on 1 September. A 19-year-old woman was in Nelson Mandela Square in the city centre, sending a text message to a friend. Lyons followed her down a lane and pushed her, causing her to strike her head on a wall.
He exposed himself and fondled her. She cried for help and two women went to her aid.
About two hours later, a woman, 20, was on the phone and walking in Woodlands Road when Lyons grabbed her, stating: "I want sex." She fought back, and he left."
Lord Kinclaven ordered that Lyons should serve at least four years and six months before he could be considered for parole.
The full article contains 391 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
