A man sentenced to 20 years for sexual assaulting a 76-year-old woman during a burglary had three years knocked of his sentence by the Appeals Court yesterday ? even though they said he was a menace to society.

Raymond Maxwell Perott 38, was sentenced in June to 12 years for the sexual assault and eight years for burglary by Assistant Justice Archibald Warner, who described the offence as a ?brutal and horrendous home invasion of a helpless elderly woman?.

However the Appeals Court found Mr. Warner sentenced Perott on an incorrect factual basis because his comments during sentencing referred to a summary of evidence for serious sexual assault to which Perott had pleaded not guilty while the Crown had accepted a lesser plea.

Perott?s lawyer Craig Attridge had said that while the custodial term for the sexual assault was justifiable, the burglary of $200 from the woman?s bedroom was not particularly serious.

He had argued the judge should have been concurrent rather than consecutive however the Appeals Court ruled Mr. Warner was entitled to act as he did as the two offences were not similar.

In their judgment the Appeals Court said: ?The appellant has an atrocious record and is clearly a menace to society. But he cannot be sentenced on his past record.

?The burglary of itself was not of the worst kind and although there was a delayed guilty plea it should not have attracted a sentence of eight years imprisonment.?

The Appeals Court quashed the eight-year sentence and changed it to five but upheld the 12 year sentence for sexual assault to run consecutively making 17 years the total time to be served.

In 2002, Perott gained entry to the woman?s bedroom while her husband was watching television in another room and slammed a pillow over her head, breaking her glasses.

Perott continually threatened to kill her while demanding money for his cocaine habit.

But despite handing over $200 from her dressing table, Perott then repeatedly tried to rape her as she struggled and begged for mercy.

A multiple offender, Perott has convictions dating back to the mid-1980s for house breaking, unlawful assault on women as well as two consecutive nine-month prison sentences in 1990 for having unlawful carnal knowledge of girls under 14.