POLICE said tonight they have had "two significant calls" after a Crimewatch appeal over an attack on an elderly retired doctor in his own home.

The BBC programme earlier featured the case of 92-year-old former GP Dr William Benson.

Three young men ransacked his home in Stanley, County Durham, searching for cash, and then one beat him as he lay in bed.

Dr Benson, who is frail and disabled, lay injured for nine hours before being discovered by a carer.

Speaking on the Crimewatch update, two hours after the appeal was broadcast, Detective Inspector Geoff Smith, who is leading the investigation, said a number of calls had been received, and two were being treated as significant.

"The first call was about three people seen in a public house near to the doctor's home three weeks prior to the offence and all fit the description, so we are going to follow that up," he said.

On the earlier programme, DI Smith revealed that the burglars had left behind a distinctive lamp.

The light, which would have been used for lamping, has a distinctive insignia.

DI Smith said: "Someone rang up and identified the manufacturer of the lamp, so we are also going to follow that up."

Dr Benson suffered a sustained attack by the three young men who forced their way into his home shortly after midnight on October 17, last year.

Crimewatch featured a reconstruction of the incident, which showed the gang searching the house for cash. They found a safe, and one of the young men beat Dr Benson when he was unable to tell them where the key was.

The same gang member then deliberately took the bed covers off him, removed his panic button from around his neck, took away his wheelchair and pulled the telephone from the wall.

DI Smith said: "I think the other two people felt uncomfortable about the level of violence.

"I am appealing for them to come forward."

Dr Benson found by his carer, Cheryl Peacock, the next morning.

She told the programme: "I ran up and found him in his bed.

"I saw a poor old man battered and bleeding and cold. It was just awful."

DI Smith said one of the men was distinctive because he was 6ft tall, blond and spoke with a North Shields accent.

Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800-555-111.