A crack addict burglar who battered a disabled 83-year-old war hero with his own walking stick has been jailed for 15 years.

Wallace Martin was struck about the head and body up to 30 times after he disturbed Simon Pollard in his Bradford home.

The pensioner was left badly shaken and covered in blood by the vicious attack.

Today, his wife Celia, 82, who watched in horror as her husband was beaten, told of their joy that his attacker had been sent to prison.

"It's the best news we have had for a long time. He has got what he deserved. He nearly killed my husband. For the first time since it happened we won't feel frightened when we go to bed. We were worried he would come back."

Prosecutor Andrew Kershaw told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that Mr Martin, who is now 84, was attacked when he went to investigate noises at the couple's home in Eccleshill in the early hours of the morning in June 2002.

As the pensioner tried to get down the stairs Pollard rushed up demanding his wallet.

Mr Martin fell to the foot of the stairs and Pollard repeatedly hit him about the head and body.

"Mr Martin feared for his life and says he was hit 20 to 30 times on his head," said Mr Kershaw.

Mrs Martin tried to raise the alarm by banging on the walls and shouting from a window, then told Pollard she had some money to stop him hitting her husband.

Pollard eventually got her to hand over the house keys and fled through the back door.

Mr Martin was treated at Bradford Royal Infirmary for a large wound to his head and bad bruising and swelling to his body and arms.

At the time Pollard was on bail after he was caught breaking into the home of a sleeping 95- year-old woman in the same street a few days earlier.

Pollard, of Fencote Crescent, Fagley, Bradford, was arrested the day after the attack on Mr Martin and was bailed. But three weeks later he and an accomplice carried out a knifepoint robbery on a pair of teenagers in Bradford city centre. Pollard, 30, admitted three burglaries, two robberies, an attempted robbery, assaulting Mr Martin and unlawful possession of a knife.

All the offences were committed between May and July 2002 and his barrister Fiona Dix-Dyer said they resulted from his "foray" into the use of crack cocaine. "He is utterly ashamed of the burglaries involving elderly people," she added.

Judge Robert Taylor described Mr Martin's actions as very brave and said the attack on him was an extremely serious offence. He jailed Pollard for nine years for the burglary at the Martins' home and sentenced him to a consecutive term of six years for a robbery in Leeds. He received concurrent sentences for the other offences.

Mrs Martin said her husband had not been the same since the attack. She said he had been left lame after he was shot in the leg during the Second World War. He served in the Light Infantry and won four medals.