A PENSIONER who awoke to find a raider standing by her bed had undergone a personality change and was now constantly anxious and distressed, a court heard.

Burnley Crown Court was told how Paul Williams, 23, threw a battery through the 88-year-old victim's window and got hold of her wrist when she got out of bed -- and a judge said she must have been terrified.

Assistant Recorder Beverley Lunt sent Williams, said to be suicidal, and to have suffered a sad and very difficult life, to prison for 30 months.

She told the defendant, of Asian origin but who had been rejected from the ethnic community because of his sexual orientation, that the courts must send out a clear message that such offences would not be excused by blaming personal problems, or abuse of drink or drugs.

Williams, of Wood Street, Brierfield, earlier admitted burglary. Mark Rhind, prosecuting, said the complainant awoke to find the defendant by her bed and when she got out, Williams took hold of her wrist.

The pensioner pushed past him, went into her kitchen and shouted for help.

Her neighbour was eventually alerted and when the woman searched her home, she found blood on doors and walls and her purse.

She recalled the defendant had asked several times if she had any money.

Before the offence, the pensioner was confident and energetic and lived an independent life.

Since the attack, she constantly rang family members in the middle of the night, afraid somebody was in her home. It had greatly changed her personality.

Martin Hackett, defending, said before the offence, the defendant, who had never been before a court before, had split up with his partner of eight years.

He could not remember the offence as he had been drinking and taken medication. He felt dreadful for the hurt he had caused the victim and was ashamed.