AN 80-year-old woman has been left terrified to stay in the country cottage which has been her home for 60 years after a gun-toting raider robbed her and threatened to shoot her.

Sheila Turnbull was in the property in the remote Yarrow Valley in the Scottish Borders when Taylor Wright, 21, who spent part of his childhood living at a neighbouring farm, assaulted and robbed her.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard the crime had had a "profound psychological impact" on the victim, who was putting away shopping when Wright came to the door armed with a spray-painted BB gun on March 18.

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Turnbull said: "I am so frightened, I feel I cannot live here for another winter when the nights are long and dark. The crime is on my mind every day."

Advocate depute Peter McCormack told the court Wright appeared at the front door and pointed the imitation firearm at Mrs Turnbull, saying words to the effect of "I won't hurt you if you do what I tell you to do".

Mr McCormack said: "The weapon appeared real to Mrs Turnbull, who was terrified."

She sat down in an armchair shaking, crying and covering her face. Wright continued to point the gun at her and repeatedly threatened to shoot her and demanded cash, claiming he needed £6,000 for a gambling debt.

Mrs Turnbull said she did not have that kind of money but Wright claimed that he knew she was rich.

The victim got her handbag and gave him £60. But he also took her purse and withdrew her bank card from it and demanded her PIN number and she revealed the code.

Wright told her: "You'd better be telling me the truth or I'll shoot you."

Mr McCormack told the court: "She was tearful and begged him not to shoot her."

Unemployed Wright, of no fixed abode, admitted assaulting and robbing his victim at Ladhope Farm Cottage, Yarrow, near Selkirk on March 18 this year while possessing an imitation firearm and after being freed on bail in November last year

He also admitted using the bank card to steal money from the cash machine on the same day and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by putting his victim's mobile phone in water, disconnecting a land line phone and removing her care alarm from a wall.

The court heard that during the ordeal Mrs Turnbull had asked Wright if he was someone she may have known as a child, but no longer recognised.

Mr McCormack said: "One of the names she suggested to him was 'Taylor', the name of a youth who had lived at a neighbouring farm, whom she had not seen for about five years. He denied being that person."

After the raider fled, his victim found her mobile in the kitchen sink and tried to dry it out and after about 10 minutes was able to call relatives.

Wright later met up with others after taking money from a cash machine and told them he had robbed a woman near Selkirk. He said he knew the woman when he was a young boy and that she lived near where he had stayed.

Police detained Wright at a house in Galashiels. They also found out that he had stayed at a farmhouse near to Mrs Turnbull's home from May 2007 to January 2008.

Officers found the victim's car in Selkirk with the imitation handgun in the back. Wright's DNA was recovered from the weapon.

Lord Brailsford continued the case to have a background report prepared on Wright ahead of sentencing. The judge remanded him in custody.