A SEXUAL predator followed a pensioner through the streets before brazenly walking into her home and launching a sex attack.

Serial offender Philip Packham followed the woman in her 80s in the Lordshill area of Southampton while she was alone.

Perverted Packham, 69, preyed on his “confused and worried” victim who asked him to leave.

Despite her protestations, he tried to touch her between her legs over her clothing - and tried to kiss and cuddle the terrified woman.

READ MORE: Police statement as woman in her 80s is sexually assaulted

Prosecutor Matthew Lawson told Southampton Crown Court she was “extremely distressed by this” and told a neighbour who contacted police.

In a statement, the victim said she feels “worried and scared to go outside”.

She said: “I can't believe what has happened. I'm worried what happens if he was to get out and potentially do this again.”

Packham, who has 30 convictions for 73 offences, had previously been sentenced for gross indecency with a child, indecent assault of a female under 14, exposure and assault.

His first sex attack was in the 1980s.

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He had been subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order - imposed when he was jailed and branded a dangerous offender - when he carried out his latest attack.

Jailing the defendant, Judge Christopher Parker KC said Packham had followed the woman deliberately and went into her house uninvited.

He added that the incident caused “severe psychological harm,” telling Packham: “You can shake your head now but what you say and what you do are very different.

“It seems to me that there is no question that you pose a risk of serious harm.”

Judge Parker imposed a six-year jail term with a four-year extended licence.

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Packham, of Exford Avenue, Southampton, admitted sexual assault and breaching the sexual harm prevention order by being in a property alone with a woman.

In police interview he accepted he tried to touch her, but claimed he had been invited in. He stopped answering questions before asking for a solicitor - and then denied being responsible.

Mitigating, Keeley Harvey told the court: “The only real mitigation that I have got is that there was a guilty plea to these matters.”

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