A DISABLED Taunton woman bravely held a 6ft tall burglar at bay with a garden fork as police raced to her aid, the County Gazette reported back in January 2010.

Diminutive Eileen Burke, 59, was waiting for operations on two arthritic knees and was “virtually blind”.

But that didn’t stop her heroically tackling the intruder as he tried to clear out the chest freezer in her shed in Lambrook Close.

Mrs Burke, who was just 5ft 4ins tall, had gone out to the shed to check on her laundry when she found the burglar leaning over the freezer with a large holdall in his hand.

She told the County Gazette: “For the life of me I don’t know how I didn’t just have a heart attack on the spot, but I was so angry because I’d been robbed many times before.

“I just grabbed a garden fork and told him to stay where he was.

“I called out to my friend, Jean Alliston, who had come round for tea.

“She thought that I’d fallen over because of my knees, so she came out to the back quickly and we managed to lock him in the shed as he tried to push his way out.

“We called the police straightaway and they were here in about four minutes.”

Mrs Burke said the intruder seemed more scared than she was and kept saying “please don’t hurt me”.

She said: “The whole thing has really shaken me up.

“Someone knocked on my front door the other day and for the first time I was scared to answer it.”

Sgt Andy Murphy, of Taunton police, said Mrs Burke had made a “brave decision”.

He told the County Gazette: “From our point of view Mrs Burke can be commended for her actions.

“She did absolutely the right thing in making sure the offender was detained and calling the police.”