Woman fools men with sex advance

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A woman who preyed on vulnerable men by making them believe she was going to have sex with them has been jailed for two years and seven months.

Marion Townsley, 40, targeted a 68-year-old disabled man at a sheltered housing complex, stole from a 61-year-old twice and robbed a 49-year-old.

She gave the men the impression she would sleep with them, then rifled through their property and robbed them.

Townsley, from Perth, pled guilty to eight charges.

A further 10 charges were dropped by the Crown.

At Perth Sheriff Court, Townsley admitted stealing 200 cigarettes from a house in Dalreoch Place on 10 September 2006 and going back to the same house a month later to steal £60 from the 61-year-old resident.

In between those incidents she stole a mobile phone and £17 pounds from a 68-year-old man who only had one leg, used a wheelchair, and lived in sheltered housing.

Townsely also admitted picking up a 49-year-old man in a pub and robbing him at a guest house in Dunkeld Road in November 2006.

Your sole purpose in acting the way you did was to dupe these individuals Sheriff Lindsay Foulis She also admitted failing to turn up at court three times and failing to attend an identity parade.

After her initial arrest, Townsley, from Princes Street, was granted bail but was banned from every old folks' home and sheltered housing complex in Scotland.

Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said: "There was at least a naivety on the part of the gentlemen. She acknowledged she had deceived them to get access to their belongings.

"At no time did she promise them sexual favours, although the men may have believed that was the position."

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Townsley: "There seems to be an element of befriending and 'taking in' persons, two of whom were elderly and one disabled and confined to a wheelchair.

"No matter that they may have considered there was something in it for them - and I stress may - nonetheless your sole purpose in acting the way you did was to dupe these individuals.

"There are four charges where you preyed on folk who were perhaps not as careful as they might otherwise be."