A BURGLAR has been jailed after a pensioner was repeatedly stabbed with a screwdriver while trying to protect his home.

Teesside Crown Court heard how 66-year-old Henry Westwood suffered horrific injuries in the attack in the early hours of September 29 last year.

Mr Westwood was woken at his home in Liverton Crescent, Thornaby, near Stockton, by two men trying to break in.

The householder went downstairs and confronted the men, punching one of them. Both men then attacked him.

During the assault, Mr Westwood was stabbed several times with a screwdriver.

Neil Robinson, 31, of Bath Lane, Stockton, was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for his part in the attack after admitting attempted burglary and being found guilty of unlawful wounding at an earlier hearing.

The court heard that it was his accomplice who used the weapon. He has not been identified.

However, Robinson still took part in the assault after initially trying to run away.

Mr Westwood said in a impact statement that at the time of the break-in, his life had only recently got back on track after he had battled cancer and then suffered a heart attack.

He told how shortly after the incident, he was about to make a speech at his daughter’s wedding, but broke down as he stood up after the events came flooding back to him.

He said that since the incident he had slept with the light on and locked the bedroom door.

“I now feel like a prisoner in my own home,” he said in the statement read by Jolyon Perks, prosecuting.

Mr Perks said Robinson’s “criminal career” began in 1992 and he now had 102 previous convictions for crimes including burglary, violence and drugs offences.

Shaun Dryden, mitigating, said his client was not aware his accomplice was carrying a weapon.

“It can be said that this is a dishonest man but in my submission not a violent man,” he added.

Recorder Andrew Sutcliffe told Robinson: “It’s quit clear that you and your accomplice had no regard whatsoever for the impact your crime was going to have on this innocent family and the devastation it was going to cause.”