A 64-year-old disabled woman was attacked by a registered sex offender while sitting in front of her home in St. Petersburg as her three grandchildren slept inside, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office officials said.

Jacques W. Fields, 34, approached the woman and offered her money for sex Sunday at around 5:30 a.m., deputies said. The woman, who did not know Fields, refused and asked him to leave multiple times, then retreated into her home in fear and began searching for a weapon, deputies said.

Fields came to the door, and when the woman came back to confront him, he forcefully grabbed her breasts, deputies said. The woman punched him in the head and screamed for help, causing Fields to flee the scene.

Deputies found Fields walking a short distance from the victim's home, and said she later identified him as the suspect. Deputies said Fields was listed as a registered sexual offender stemming from a 2005 sexual battery conviction.

Fields was arrested and booked into the Pinellas County Jail. He is charged with lewd and lascivious battery of an elderly/disabled adult and felony battery.