A burglar who bit an elderly widow before stealing her treasured wedding ring was jailed for five-and-a-half years yesterday.

Lilian McTomney, 83, was found traumatised wandering the streets in her blood-stained nightgown.

But pitiless Michael Hardy walked clamly from her home and later sold the ring - Mrs McTomney's most treasured possession - for £6.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Hardy broke into the pensioner's home in St Peter's Avenue, South Shields, South Tyneside, on July 12, when he realised she had left her door unlocked.

Stephen Duffield, prosecuting, told the court how after, trying to rip off her necklace, Hardy bit the weeping pensioner on the breast and elbowed her in the face, leaving her with a black eye. He took the ring and a watch from her bedroom.

He pawned the ring at a second- hand shop, but threw away the watch when he realised it did not work.

Mrs McTomney never returned home and now lives in 24-hour residential care.

Hardy was arrested in August in Bedfordshire, and admitted a charge of burglary.

The 20-year-old, of Sunderland Road, South Shields, told police he had panicked when confronted by the frail pensioner, but said he elbowed her by accident after she tried to grab his wrist.

Judge Beatrice Bolton sentenced him to five-and-a-half years in a young offender's institution, and told him: "Most self-respecting burglars, confronted with an 83-year-old, frail lady in her bedroom, would have turned and left."

Paul Caulfield, for Hardy, said he "wished to turn back the clock" to show the great remorse for what he did.