Intruder is jailed for brutal attack on couple

AHAMMER-WIELDING intruder has been jailed after he attacked a brave elderly couple who confronted him in the hallway of their home.

Peter McDonald punched and kicked the 82-year-old husband and then attacked his 81-year-old wife with a weapon, leaving her with lifethreatening head injuries.

He had done odd jobs for the couple the year before the attack and visited their home a few months earlier trying to borrow money which he claimed he needed for his mother’s funeral.

He broke into the detached house in Fordlands Crescent, Bideford, at 3.20am on November 20 last year and they awoke to hear someone downstairs and see a light moving around in the hallway.

They were attacked after they went to investigate. The husband suffered serious facial bruising after being punched on the nose and bruising to his legs and hip where he was kicked on the ground.

His wife’s eye socket was fractured in two places and the impact of the blow led directly to her suffering a mini-stroke six weeks later. She needed life saving surgery at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.

She thought she had been hit by a torch but the hammer was found next to where she and her husband lay injured in the hallway.

McDonald, who wore a hoodie, fled with her handbag containing £200 cash and headed back to his home near the Abbey Road studios in North London, using the stolen bank cards on the way, enabling police to trace the movements of his Vauxhall Astra getaway car.

His identity was confirmed when his DNA was found on the hammer which he dropped at the scene and on the inside of a glove which had the victim’s blood on the outside and which police found in his car.

The raid left both victims frightened and feeling insecure in their own home, but they made impact statements saying they are determined to remain there.

McDonald, aged 30, of Abbey Road, London, admitted aggravated burglary, causing grievous bodily harm, and three counts of fraud or attempted fraud and was jailed for nine and a half years at Exeter Crown Court.

Judge Timothy Rose told him: “This was an utterly terrifying incident of appalling violence. The circumstances of this burglary were completely shocking. There was utterly no risk to you at all.

“It is not clear if you used a weapon but it is a feature of this case that you had a hammer which you left behind. You were a fit young man.

“They were in their 80s and posed no possible realistic risk to you in terms of getting the better of you or stopping you from leaving.

“You could have left without any violence. The violence was gratuitous and entirely unnecessary for you to make good your escape. You caused one of them an extreme and life threatening outcome.”

The Judge said he would be sending a written letter of commendation to the officer in charge of the case, Detective Constable Stryka Blackwell, whose work led to McDonald being traced very quickly.