A woman who moved to Bradford with her grandchildren to help them escape reminders of their father's brutal murder today vowed they will not be driven out of their new home by burglars.

Glenda Beck, 47, spoke of her frustration and anger after suffering three break-ins since September at her Little Horton home.

On one occasion she woke to find an intruder standing beside her bed before he fled with the children's Playstation console and games.

During another raid, burglars ransacked the house in Gondal Court. They took the coin machine for the family's television, electrical goods, jewellery and the children's Christmas presents.

Mrs Beck said her grandchildren Nicola, 14, Amy, 13, and Jason, eight, have been left traumatised by the murder of their dad Alan Reid.

In June 1994, the 28-year-old was hit over the head with a bottle and fell off a cliff, breaking his leg before being strangled, stabbed, bitten and repeatedly struck over the head in woods near his home in Kendal, Cumbria.

The murder investigation, which led to a man being jailed for life in 1996, was one of the biggest of its kind in the Lake District town and involved up to 80 police officers.

Mrs Beck, who is the stepmother of Mr Reid's former partner Pamela and is now the children's legal guardian, moved to Bradford from Kendal last year to help them get over their father's violent death.

"They have had enough happen to them already in their short lives," she said.

"We moved down here where they would not suffer constant reminders of their father's murder. All children of this world should be safe and sound and not scared to go to sleep.

"The burglars even took a badge one of the children had received at school for good behaviour. It's so upsetting. These children are my life and I would like to say to the coward who broke in you have upset them for the last time. Robbing from children is the lowest of the low. You even took their Christmas presents."

But Mrs Beck vowed the family will not be driven away.

"They are not going to beat me," she said. "I will not move away. We will build a six-foot fence around the house if necessary."

A spokesman for Brunel Housing Association, which owns the house, said: "Our neighbourhood co-ordinator for Gondal Court is aware of the problems Mrs Beck has been having and is looking into it. He will also be visiting Mrs Beck to discuss possible security solutions."

Police have appealed for information about burglaries at Mrs Beck's home at 12.12pm on Sunday, January 13, and at 4.20am on October 31 last year. Anyone who can help officers investigating the raids is asked to call (01274) 374459.