A dangerous “monster” who held a piece of broken glass to a woman’s throat and tried to rape her during a violent physical and sexual attack just days after he was released from prison has been jailed for eight years.
Dean Norman, 34, carried out the shocking crime inside the Carlisle home where she lived alone on November 16 last year as she settled down to watch ITV soap Coronation Street.
Almost immediately, Norman began punching the woman around the face and neck, stamped on and kicked her while making accusations and smashed various items in her living room.
The woman screamed and begged “stop it” as he said he would have sex with her, Carlisle Crown Court was told today.
Norman responded by putting his hand over her mouth and, said prosecutor Tim Evans: “He got a piece of smashed glass from a picture and held it to her throat.”
The woman tried to fight him off but at some stage lost consciousness
“Given the violence at this stage, she said she thought she was going to be killed,” said Mr Evans. “From the way he was smirking, he seemed to be enjoying it.”
After pinning the woman down, he sexually assaulted and tried to rape her. As she desperately reached for her phone to call for help, Norman grabbed the device and threw it behind a couch. After the attack came to a sudden halt, he told the woman: “Say nothing or I’ll get you.”
After he departed, he bizarrely shook her hand and popped the piece of glass in his pocket but left his spectacles and tobacco at the scene.
The woman fled to a neighbour’s home, police were called and she was taken to hospital. She was beaten, said Mr Evans, “quite literally black and blue”.
Norman, of Shadygrove Road, Carlisle, initially denied the offending but was identified and trapped by damning DNA evidence.
He later admitted attempted rape, sexual assault, assault by penetration and actual bodily harm assault.
In a statement, the woman described feeling “dirty” and having to shower up to three times a day, and “disgusting and devastated” in the aftermath of an incident which occurred after she “let a monster into my home”.
“The memories of that night will never ever leave me. I will never be the same person again,” she stated. She recalled praying “that if he was going to kill her, ‘please let it be quick’,” Mr Evans also told the court.
It emerged the woman’s terrible ordeal occurred within days of his release, on licence, from a previously imposed nine-year jail term.
This had been handed down in 2013 for the violent burglary of a terminally ill and blind pensioner having torn an oxygen tube from that victim’s mouth.
Norman claimed to a probation officer after the 2020 sex attack he had knocked back four litres of vodka and taken crack cocaine beforehand.
Julian Goode, defending, spoke of Norman’s personal difficulties and troubled childhood.
“He has struggled considerable because of these issues,” said Mr Goode. “Like many in his position, he has sought the medication of drink and drugs.”
Jailing Norman, Judge Richard Archer concluded he was a dangerous offender, and imposed an extended six-year licence period.
“You subjected her to a prolonged and particularly serious violent and sexual assault,” said Judge Archer. “You tricked your way into her home and you sickeningly assaulted (the woman) in this sustained way.”
Norman must serve two-thirds of his sentence before being considered for release, and sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
