A MAN has been charged in connection with an attack on an elderly woman in Newcastle.

Northumbria Police said a man knocked at the door of the pensioner's home in Netherby Drive, Newcastle, and when she answered, forced his way inside.

He searched her home before fleeing with the victim's purse.

As he left, he was confronted by neighbours who had heard a disturbance coming from the woman's home and came to help.

Lee Scott Cockburn, 40, of Violet Close, Benwell, has been charged with the robbery on Wednesday January 4 and is to appear at South East Northumberland Magistrates' Court tomorrow (Monday, January 9).