Pint-sized pensioner John Ingram was today praised for his bravery after he fought off a burglar by thumping him with his walking stick.

The intruder tricked his way into his home in Weller Close, West Bowling, Bradford, and assaulted him.

And Mr Ingram said today: "My only regret is that I didn't hit him hard enough. I wish I'd tripped him and then I would have really given him a good clobbering."

Police today released a video still of a man they would like to question in connection with the incident, which left the 69-year-old widower with cuts and bruises to his arm.

Detective Sergeant Graham Lumley of Odsal CID said: "He obviously had some courage to decide to defend his property.

"But as a matter of course we would not advise people to attack an intruder in their home because there is a possibility they could be assaulted and end up badly injured," he added.

The break-in took place at about noon on Sunday when a man knocked on the door of the pensioner's council flat and asked for a glass of water.

At first Mr Ingram shut his front door on him while he fetched some water but the burglar pushed past the elderly man as he reopened the door and ran into his kitchen.

The plucky pensioner, who needs two sticks to walk and stands only 5ft 4in high, fought back, even though his young assailant towered over him.

"I clobbered him on the back with my stick and then as he ran out chasing him I tried to hit him again with my stick but all I managed to do was break the lampshade with it."

The pensioner, who was forced to retire early as a fitter's labourer with a weaving firm because of ill health, suffers from emphysema, angina and crippling arthritis of his spine and legs.

The burglar escaped with just a bumbag containing his inhalers but which Mr Ingram believes the robber thought had cash in it.

The break-in is the latest in a string of traumas which have left Mr Ingram at the end of his tether. In 1992, just months after his wife Mary died following a heart attack, his son Terence was murdered in Manningham. He has also lost his brother, sister and brother-in-law recently.

Mr Ingram added: "I can't sleep at night. Every time I hear the slightest noise I have to get up and check there is no one in the flat."

His attacker is described as white, around 6ft 2in tall, thin, and wearing quite thick glasses and a very distinctive pale coloured woollen hat with a dark band around the bottom.

Near to the time of the incident a man fitting the description was caught on CCTV at a local shop, and police are keen to trace him.

l Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Odsal police on Bradford 376659 or 0845 6060606, or Crimestoppers free and in confidence on 0800 555111.

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