Praise the ‘fool’ who protected his home...

LAST year, my family home was burgled. It was devastating. Precious family i t ems, i ncluding my grandmother’s wedding ring, were stolen, with every drawer turned inside out. Chillingly, left lying on a bed in one of the upstairs rooms was a 4ft-long wooden bat. There was no mistaking what this bat was for. It was a weapon.

Had anyone been in the house when the burglars had broken in – and thankfully nobody was – I have little doubt that it would have been used.

Charles Mulholland is an 83-year-old who found himself in this horrifying position recently, when an armed intruder broke into his Glasgow flat and stole his late wife’s wedding ring.

Discovering 46-year-old Ian McElwain in his living room, Mr Mulholland cornered the thief ‘like a lion tamer’ with a chair after he threatened to ‘cut’ him.

He said the thief had dropped the items he had taken and ran to the front door. Mr Mulholland then chased him away.

Defence lawyer Ian Sievwright said the pensioner should be applauded for his bravery, while Mr Mulholland modestly replied: ‘No, I was a fool.’

The Americans call housebreaking ‘home invasion’ and I can understand why. It does feel as though your per- sonal space is being invaded, your own life riffled through by strangers in a way that is dehumanising and upsetting.

Our homes are indeed our castles and the impulse to defend one’s home, the things we have worked hard for, the things that remind us of family members who are gone, is a strong one.

If Mr Mulholland was, as he says, ‘a fool’, by the sounds of it he was also a very brave one.