A GREAT grandmother set her dog on a burglar - but when the hopeless hound licked him and wagged its tail she had to leap into action herself.

Retired secretary Jean Walsh was in her home alone when Tallen Kirby, 24, broke in and began creeping down her stairs.

Mrs Walsh, 73, set her Border collie Marley on Kirby but the soppy pooch licked him and pranced back to her wagging his tail.

So the super-gran pinned Kirby to the wall and then locked him in a room until the police arrived.

She has now been commended for her bravery by a judge who locked Kirby away for 15 months.

Mrs Walsh was downstairs in her Stockton home when she heard banging from upstairs.

She went out into the hall and saw the intruder walking down the stairs with a torch in his hand.

She said: “Really I was just acting on adrenaline. Later that night as I got into bed, I laughed to myself and was quite shocked with what I had done.

“But in that moment I just did what I had to do - I wanted him out of my house!”

Her first response was to set her dog on the raider after he failed to listen to her warning to leave.

She said: “The lad made no response when I said that so I let Marley out and said ‘go on Marley’.

“He came out wagging his tail and went over to him and licked him! I couldn’t believe it. He could have at least growled at him!”

The incident happened on October 2 at Mrs Walsh’s home where she has lived with her husband Noel for 40 years.

It was about 10.30pm when Mrs Walsh, who was in the house alone, heard banging and then saw Kirby on the stairs.

She said: “I asked him ‘who are you? what are you doing up there? He didn’t answer me.

“I got hold of his t-shirt and pushed him to the wall.

“I told him to get out of my house but he said ‘no I am going into that room’ - pointing to my sitting room. I just thought ‘right go on then’.”

Mrs Walsh - a mother of three, grandmother-of-11 and great-grandmother of one, went to her kitchen, wedged the door shut with her foot and called the police.

She said: “I then quickly rang my son. Next thing I heard noises and banging at the front door.

"I was worried at this point that there was a whole gang of them. I looked out and it was the police - I couldn’t believe it. Talk about a quick response - it must have been seconds.”

The police were in fact already in Mrs Walsh’s street after they received a call from a neighbour saying that a man was acting suspiciously in the area.

Kirby had unplugged Mrs Walsh’s TV in her sitting room ready to carry away, when police caught him.

Kirby, of Dovecot Street, Stockton, admitted burglary and separate offences of theft from a parked car and criminal damage to a police cell.

Kelleigh Lodge, mitigating, told Teesside Crown Court that the burglary was not planned.

She said he was heavily under the influence of drugs and had taken a friend’s dog for a walk.

Judge Paul Camp said: “The lady acted very bravely.

"She must have been very frightened when you said that there were others in the house and you were under the influence of drugs."