Thomas O'HanlonTHE teenager who battered a pensioner to the ground with a hammer said he just wants the chance to say sorry to his victim but under the rules of his parole he is not allowed to.

Thomas O'Hanlon has been released from a young offenders' institute after serving two years for attempting to rob Margaret Malgarin for her handbag. The 81-year-old needed nine stitches after he hit her with a hammer.

Now aged 18, Mr O'Hanlon deeply regrets what he did but his victim said she cannot forgive him

Apart from through the pages of the Adver, he cannot get a message to her as he will be arrested if he tries to make contact. While the teenager was in his cell, he made a card to say sorry but the pensioner never received it.

"She's probably sat at home thinking that she doesn't want to go out to the shops," said Mr O'Hanlon.

"There is no reason for her to be afraid. I just want to say sorry for what I did.

"I will never be able to put it behind me."

Mr O'Hanlon, who lives with his grandmother in Poplar Avenue, Pinehurst, claims his former partner, 20 years his senior, used emotional blackmail to make him rob the woman.

He also said he was "off his head" on drugs at the time of the attack.

"If I could go back in time I would give myself a good shake and say 'don't take drugs'," he said.

The attack happened in Feb-ruary 2003 as Mrs Malgarin walked between Holly Close and Mulberry Grove.

Police officers described it at the time as one of the most savage street robberies they had seen.

Mr O'Hanlon said: "I can't remember much about the attack. But I remember seeing my dead dad, behind me shaking his head."

The 18-year-old's life was thrown into turmoil in October 2002 when, without warning, his dad, also called Thomas, hanged himself.

During his stint in the young offenders' institute in Suffolk, the former Hreod Parkway School pupil passed five GCSEs.

"I would never have taken them if I hadn't been inside," he said. "And I wouldn't be here today as the drugs would have killed me."

Mr O'Hanlon, who had committed more minor offences before the attack, including driving without a licence, said he would never return to a life of drugs and crime.

He is now looking for a job and wants to pass his driving test.

The teenager's grandmother, Shirley Heaney, 61 said she would continue to stand by him

"I was heartbroken when I heard what had happened," she said.

"I wastrying to cope with his father's death and then this happened. He's a different person from the one that went inside."

'I can't forgive'

THE victim of attempted robbery says she will always live with the fear of the attack.

Widow Margaret Malgarin, who lives a short distance from her attacker's home in Holly Close, Pinehurst, accepted the apology but said she will never forgive him.

"I just hope he will never offend again," said the 81-year-old.

"It's natural that he's going to regret it but I just don't want to see him again."

O'Hanlon was sentenced to four years in a young offenders' institute in May 2003.

The court heard that Mrs Heaney had defied the teenager to kill her after he landed two blows. At the time the judge warned he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

But despite of this defiance, Mrs Malgarin continues to live in fear.

"The fear stays with you," she said. "When people walk up behind me it comes back."

Ben Payne