East Belfast woman Maisie Chapman, 82, fought off the men on Saturday afternoon after they broke into her house, one throwing the pensioner onto her bed and clasping his hand over her mouth when she screamed.

Speaking to the News Letter from her terraced home on east Belfast's
Oberon Street, Mrs Chapman said that, fearing for her life, she bit, kicked and punched one of the men before fending the other off with a brush and her Bible.

Mrs Chapman awoke from resting in her living room at about 4.30pm to find one of the pair in her hallway, having managed to break in
without leaving a mark on the door.

The man, who was not wearing a uniform, claimed that he was a policeman
there to investigate a spate of burglaries.

As he spoke, Mrs Chapman noticed that the light was on upstairs where the man's accomplice was already ransacking her bedroom.

When she went upstairs, one pinned her on her bed while the other found coins she had collected for missionaries who work with street children.

But he was not satisfied because the sum was small.

"He had his hands round my mouth and I couldn't breathe," she recalled.

"He said 'We want money' and I said 'You can take it if you find it
because I don't have any'.

"I gave one a kick on the backside and got him off and bit his
hand with my false teeth. I hit the other with the brush.

"I'm a Christian and I lifted my Bible and shook it at him."

Mrs Chapman said that she regretted not thinking to lock them in her room when she ran out and down the stairs to get help from a neighbour's house.

Smiling, she added: "They weren't very good robbers – one of the boys was shaking like a leaf."

And the brave pensioner vowed that she would not let the burglars
intimidate her.

"I'm feeling all right – the policeman wanted me to get an ambulance
but I didn't want to.

"I won't dwell on it. I'm going out to church tonight as usual."

The attack is the third time that Mrs Chapman has been burgled in
the home where she had lived for more than half a century.

She said that one of the men had been in his 30s and described him
as both sturdily built and "well spoken".

The man is believed to be about 5ft 8in tall, with dark, combed
back hair and at the time of the attack was wearing a dark jacket
and plain open shirt.

The second man is only described as being shorter than the first.

Police have appealed for information on the pair, who made off from
the rear of the house.

Detectives at Musgrave Street police station have asked anyone
who noticed suspicious activity in the area to contact them.