Care assistant jailed for attempted rape of widow aged 84

Leon Zylicz, 66, a former secondary school teacher in Poland, was working for an agency at a residential care home in Batley, West Yorkshire, when the attack occurred.

Mathew Bean, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday that Zylicz was on a night shift from 9pm to 8am on December 9 last year when he and other staff went to do a routine 4am check on the residents.

His victim, who lived in a flat on the second floor, was a widow who suffered from some mental problems, treated with medication.

He was the only member of staff checking that floor while a full-time member of staff was in another area. When Zylicz approached the pensioner in bed and then tried to rape her, unknown to him he activated an alarm pad, which had been placed on the floor nearby because of concerns about her getting up at night.

The member of staff responded to the alarm and arrived to find Zylicz with one leg over the pensioner still trying to rape her.

When she confronted him and asked him what he was doing he claimed the woman had been falling from the bed.

The police were informed and he was arrested. The confused pensioner told a doctor she thought her husband was back.

Initially Zylicz denied the offence but later asked to see police again and admitted what he had done saying he needed to feel “intimacy”. He said she had smiled and was “lovely” although claimed he had not been attracted sexually.

The court heard the victim had since died from acute pneumonia.

Andrew Dallas for Zylicz said he had been recruited to work in England after being made redundant from teaching in Poland and needing money to support his disabled wife there.

He had worked in one home for two years before joining the agency and there had never been any suspicion or suggestion of anything improper.

He felt deep shame and remorse over what happened. “He simply does not know what came over him. He was lonely, he missed his wife and that’s all he can say about it.”

Zylicz, of Trinity Road, Little Horton, Bradford, admitted attempted rape and was jailed for five years three months.

Judge Rodney Grant told him it was a serious offence: “You were in a position of trust.”