A PENSIONER has described how she fought to stop a robber taking her handbag as he repeatedly punched her in the face and smashed her head against a wall.

Christina Kirkup, 67, was determined not to let her bag go, because it was the last gift her mother had given her before she died.

Instead, the plucky pensioner tried to hit back, punching her attacker as he tried to knock her senseless.

But she was forced to let the bag go when he wrenched her left arm – leaving it dislocated.

Mrs Kirkup, who also suffered severe bruising and a cut to her face, was on her way to an Ash Wednesday service at Our Lady of the Rosary, in Peterlee, County Durham, when the attack happened, in the town’s Moray Close at 6.45pm.

Mrs Kirkup said: “My arm was linked into my friend’s arm – she is in her late 70s and is very frail.

“I saw a young man coming toward me. As he came beside me he grabbed my bag and pulled it, but I held on.

“I swung around from the force of him pulling the bag and as I did so he punched me in the face.

“Because I wouldn’t let go he bashed my head against the wall.”

Mrs Kirkup said she screamed as her attacker punched her repeatedly on the left side of the face.

She said: “I gave him a good punch back in the face, but it was no good.

“By that time I felt dizzy and fell to the ground – still holding my bag.

“He started jerking my hand to wrench the bag off me, but I held on until I felt my arm come out of its socket.

That caused me to lose my grip and he ran off.”

Mrs Kirkup, who is in excruciating pain, said: “I want my bag back. It was of great sentimental value.”

Her navy blue leather bag contained a small purse, £20 cash, a set of rosary beads and several medals with various religious images – including Virgin Mary, Holy Father and images of saints. Some of the medals have the letter “M”

stamped on them.

A man in his early 30s was arrested and released on police bail pending further inquiries.