A TEENAGER who sexually assaulted women in Salisbury has been sent to a treatment centre costing £3,500 a week to work through his issues.

The 16-year-old from Salisbury, who cannot be identified due to his age, admitted two counts of sexual assault and one of exposure at Salisbury magistrates’ court on Friday.

In the first incident, on June 11, the teenager followed his middle-aged victim in the direction of Old Sarum.

He asked for directions before walking off. He then came back and she felt tugging at her trousers.

Prosecuting, Charles Thomas said: “He was following her for some distance and she felt a tug at her trousers from behind.

This was in excess of 12 times and his aim was to pull her trousers down.”

The victim, who suffers with chronic fatigue, struck the teenager with her walking stick to stop him but he replied, “come on”.

“He felt frustrated that he couldn’t pull her jeans down.

She then swore at him and he pulled his trousers down exposing his penis to her,” Mr Thomas said.

On June 13 the teenager assaulted a 24-year-old woman while walking through the underpass from James Hay towards Waitrose.

He lifted the victim’s dress and touched her bottom before trying to get his hands in her underwear. “She amazingly was brave enough to struggle and resist. She shouted out and screamed and then he ran off,”

Mr Thomas said.

The teenager already has previous convictions for inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and another for possessing extreme pornographic images.

Defending, Catherine Thornton said the teenager had been through a “traumatic experience”

having been sexually abused as a child. “His sexual boundaries are completely out of line of what society expects of young people. I know he felt distress by what he heard.”

The boy eventually admitted to his actions to “let a pretence and self-protection he had built up over the years fall away. He knows he shouldn’t have done this and he hates himself for what he has done.”

District Judge Nichols ordered the teenager to carry out a two-year youth rehabilitation order at a treatment centre where he will under go 24-hour supervision and counselling