A 75-year-old widower spent 10 days in a high dependency unit in hospital after being viciously attacked in his Bradford home.

Victim James Glen, who lived alone in Holme Wood following the death of his wife, was tricked into opening his front door in the middle of the night and then punched and kicked by 30-year-old Robert Braithwaite.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that there had been an “issue” between the two men, but Braithwaite’s barrister Ken Green conceded it did not justify the “severe and vicious” assault.

Mr Glen suffered three fractured ribs, internal bleeding to the chest and a bleed on the brain in the attack which took place in June.

Braithwaite and his accomplice, 36-year-old Benjamin Sanderson, left the scene following the early hours attack and it was eight hours later when the injured Mr Glen was seen by a neighbour and the emergency services were contacted.

Yesterday Braithwaite, of Heath Hall Avenue, Bierley, Bradford, was jailed for 10 years after he pleaded guilty on the day of his trial to causing Mr Glen grievous bodily harm with intent.

He was sentenced to an extra one month in jail for five shoplifting offences committed a few weeks before the attack.

The court heard that Sanderson, of Tong Street, Bradford, was known to Mr Glen and he was the one who knocked on the door that morning so the unsuspecting victim would open it. Sanderson pleaded guilty to the less serious offence of causing grievous bodily harm and he was jailed for three years and two months.

Recorder Abdul Iqbal QC said the case had involved the deliberate targeting of a vulnerable victim and the two defendants had clearly hatched a plan to attack their victim that night.

The judge said Mr Glen was discharged from hospital after 10 days, but he told Braithwaite:”Mercifully, both for him and for you, it seems that his injuries resolved themselves uneventfully.

“This was in my judgement a vicious and sustained assault against a senior and vulnerable member of the community.

“Vulnerable members of the community deserve the protection of the court and they will receive the protection of the court.”

Braithwaite’s barrister Ken Green said his client had struggled with a drug addiction all his adult life, but his record showed he was not ordinarily a violent man.

The court heard that Braithwaite was made the subject of a community order in May for the shoplifting offences, but the drug rehabilitation requirement part of the order had not started before he carried out the attack on Mr Glen.

Sanderson’s barrister Nigel Jamieson said his client was aware that some force would be used, but he had not contemplated the ferocity of the attack.

“He agreed to assist by knocking on the door and saying his name,” conceded Mr Jamieson.

“It was familiar enough for the complainant to trust it and open the door.

“It was never the Crown’s case, as I understand it, that he in fact used any force at all in the attack itself.”

Recorder Iqbal also imposed a 10-year restraining order which bans the two men from contacting their victim and going onto the street where he lives in Holme Wood.