A householder, who stabbed to death a burglar trying to break into his cannabis factory, told an inquest he did not mean to harm anybody.

Barry Day said he remembered grabbing a kitchen knife as the door to his house, in Beckside Road, Lidget Green, Bradford, was being kicked in, sticking the knife through a hole in the door and waving it.

Shazad Habib-Ur Rehman, 32, suffered a stab wound to the chest and died in Bradford Royal Infirmary five days after the incident, in October last year.

Mr Day, giving evidence yesterday at the inquest into Mr Rehman’s death, said he was not aware he had stabbed someone and did not intend to harm anyone. He said he was in fear.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Atkinson, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, told the Bradford hearing consideration was given to prosecuting Mr Day, 62, for murder and a file was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, but the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence.

He was prosecuted for cultivating cannabis, after 75 plants and a hydroponic cannabis factory were found upstairs at his house, and given a suspended prison sentence.

The dead man’s three accomplices, who have all served prison sentences for attempted burglary in connection with the incident, told the inquest they had decided to burgle the house after hearing about the cannabis factory.

Gareth Dobson, 23, of Windhill, said he kicked in the bottom panel of the door. He said Mr Rehman said to Mr Day: “We don’t want no trouble, we just want the weed. That’s when Mr Day lashed out and stabbed him with a knife.”

The friends drove Mr Rehman to hospital.

Mohammed Waqas Khan told the inquest: “We just wanted to take what there was and go. There was no intention to go in there to endanger anyone’s life.”

Acting Bradford Coroner, Professor Paul Marks, said the householder had attempted to resist the forced entry to his premises. He brandished a baseball bat and waved the kitchen knife as a deterrent.

He said there were obvious inconsistencies in the evidence. A pathologist said moderate to severe force would have been used to cause the fatal injury, but the householder did not remember any resistance to the knife.

Prof Marks said the householder was in fear, but not in fear of his life. He said he had concerns about verdicts of lawful or unlawful killing.

Recording a narrative verdict, Prof Marks said Mr Rehman received a stab wound to the chest, from which he died, while attempting to enter premises known to him and his associates as being a cannabis factory.