Two men have been convicted of burglary and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to an 84-year-old Irish man living in Luton, England.
Michael Ring, who attempted to fight off his attackers with a billiard cue, suffered fractured discs in his spine, a black eye, cuts to his wrists and bruising on the brain during the incident.
Roderick McDonald (52), of Luxembourg Close, Luton, and Stephen Simons (44), of Brook Street, Luton, were convicted on the two charges but cleared of a charge of aggravated burglary.
The trial heard that Cork-born Mr Ring was asleep in his home on Ashburnham Road, Luton on August 10th last when the two accused broke in through his conservatory. His granddaughter, Emma Price, was staying with him at the time.
Mr Ring said he had woke to use the toilet: “Then I heard glass breaking. I got out of bed. The nearest thing I could see was a billiard cue.” He kept the cue near his bed having previously been burgled as he “expected the thieves to come back again”.
The first burglary happened just two months after the death of his wife last year. Some £500 (€566) was taken along with much of his late wife’s jewellery. Following that attack, he had installed CCTV and an alarm.
Frighten
Mr Ring said he tried to frighten the latest burglars by turning on lights but they continued trying to break into his conservatory “as if I wasn’t there”.
When they entered he said he had “rammed” the billiard cue in the face of the first raider, who “fell backwards and I thought they would disappear”.
However, the second burglar “jumped over the first man and yanked the door” and “came in to fight me”.
“He came straight for me. He pushed me out of the way. I hit him with the billard cue a couple of times.”
Mr Ring said he suffered cuts from a Stanley knife in the struggle. He set the burglar alarm off and when one of the raiders ran upstairs he was confronted by Ms Price, who had called the police and shouted at the raider. The man ran back down stairs and kicked Mr Ring in the chest.
Mr Ring said Simons ran out of the front of the house and McDonald, who had been ransacking the living room, escaped through the conservatory.
Ms Price said she found her grandfather on his back on the floor.
‘Covered in blood’
“He was covered in blood and he had some sort of stick in his hand and he was in a lot of pain. It looked like a snooker cue in his hand,” she said.
Prosecutor Isabel Delamere told the jury that DNA recovered from broken glass on the floor in the conservatory was swabbed and found to match McDonald. CCTV from outside the house showed Simons before he put on a balaclava.
McDonald admitted he had been a “villain” all his life and was homeless at the time. He denied trying to get into Mr Ring’s bedroom, saying that after the cue hit him on the eye and tooth he went backwards.
“I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible,” he said, adding that he did not take anything.
Simons said he was there because McDonald had taken him to the house “for a smoke”.
Judge Richard Foster remanded the pair in custody and adjourned sentencing until Friday.