physical assault of a 77-year-old woman.

The 32-year-old Warwick man was arrested soon after the terrifying incident on Sunday night when a robber broke into a house looking for cash and carried out the assaults on the senior citizen.

He had broken into the rear of the property in Happy Valley Road, Pembroke, at about 10.45 p.m.

He grabbed the pensioner and two other occupants in the house and detained them in a bedroom before threatening them and demanding money.

He then allegedly sexually and physically assaulted the elderly woman.

The robber tied all three people up on the bed before fleeing with the woman's car and an amount of cash. The victims managed to raise the alarm to a relative, who alerted Police.

Minutes later Police officers responding to the call attempted to stop a driver near the scene. But the driver led them on a high-speed chase around Hamilton which finally came to an end when the suspect crashed his vehicle into a parked car.

The chase continued on foot until the man was apprehended hiding in a hedge in nearby Robert's Avenue. He was not injured in the accident.

Last night, one of the men leading the investigation, Det. Con. David Geraghty, said: "As a result of some excellent policing at the time of this offence, a man is currently in Police custody.

"Police are still actively investigating the allegations and it's expected that a man will appear in court in due course charged with a number of offences.

"It was a very serious incident and we are treating it as so.''