Don’t lock up my heror hubby Career crook l targeted family Brave dad in his boxers chased him off The wrong man l was charged

He only wanted to protect me and the kids

As I got into bed, I heard a sudden rattling at the front door – and went cold with fear.

It was December 2016, and my husband Carl, 47, and our three kids – Natalie, 23, Ryan, 20, and Chelsea, 16 – were all asleep.

As I looked out of the window, my heart pounded.

‘Carl!’ I yelled, my voice shaking. ‘Hughie Hendry is trying to break in!’

Hendry was a known local criminal and drug addict.

Next, he started trying to break into my new car.

‘What?!’ Carl gasped, sitting bolt upright.

Jumping out of bed, Carl picked up the lump hammer he’d used to wedge our bedroom door shut since we’d been burgled four years earlier.

The break-in had left Carl on tenterhooks.

Now he sprinted downstairs in his boxer shorts and out of the front door.

I watched from the window, terrified, as Hendry squared up to Carl. Suddenly, Carl was chasing him… My heart pounded. Hendry was a career criminal, I’d no idea what he was capable of.

I ran downstairs and into the driveway. Carl was walking towards me, while Hendry walked away. ‘Call the police,’ Carl said. Stunned, I did. ‘What happened?’ I asked. ‘He threatened to stab me,’ Carl said. ‘I was convinced he’d pull a knife.’

I listened in horror as Carl said how he’d thrown down the hammer and wrestled Hendry to the floor to stop him putting his hands in his pockets and reaching for a weapon. Carl was shaken. He said he’d punched Hendry to stop him coming back. ‘All I could think about was you and the kids,’ Carl said. Minutes later, the police arrived. We told them what’d happened, and they went to see Hendry. Then an officer came back to us. ‘Mr Hendry has accused you of hitting him with the hammer,’ the policeman said. ‘You’re under arrest.’ read his rights, we were stunned. ‘I didn’t!’ he gasped. ‘I was just defending my family.’ Carl was put in the back of the police car. ‘This is ridiculous,’ I wept. Carl had stopped a known thug. Why was he the one being treated as the criminal? ‘Don’t worry,’ Carl called to me. ‘They’ll realise I did nothing wrong.’ As my hubby was driven away, I felt sick. Ryan, Natalie, Chelsea and I prayed that the police would see sense. Sixteen hours later, Carl got home – he looked dreadful. ‘I’ve been charged with actual bodily harm,’ he said. Flabbergasted, I fell into Carl’s arms, sobbing. He faced a criminal trial, jail. Just for defending his family!

Horrifying.

Neither of us could sleep. Meanwhile, Hughie Hendry, 44, appeared at Doncaster Magistrates Court.

There, he pleaded guilty to interference with a motor vehicle.

I was stunned when he was jailed for just eight weeks.

And I was furious – that man would soon be free, while my