I must admit to a certain weakness for comeuppance stories like this:
A knife-wielding burglar had a shock when he attacked a pensioner in his home — and discovered his victim was a retired boxer.Senior citizen Frank Corti, 72, a former junior boxing champion is still a bit handy with his dukes.
And when he spotted the aforementioned intruder, Gregory McCalium, in his hallway he sprang into action and delivered two right hooks.
The blows were so powerful that McCalium, who had just lunged at Mr Corti with the knife, was left looking like he had been in ‘a car accident’.The pensioner then restrained him until police arrived. He was jailed for four and a half years yesterday after a judge told him he had ‘got what he deserved’.
After sentencing, Mr Corti said: ‘I was scared when he first drew the knife but most people would have acted in the same way. If you can’t defend what’s yours, where are we at?’
Oxford Crown Court heard the break-in was the culmination of a long-running dispute over noise between the neighbours, who live in Botley, Oxford.
McCalium, a barman, was having a rowdy party at his house on August 18 last year when police turned up after a complaint from a neighbour.
McCalium assumed it had been made by Mr Corti — who won the National Association of Boys’ Clubs Championship in Birmingham when he was 16 — and broke into his neighbour’s home at 8am the following day.
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Mr Corti said: ‘The accused produced a knife. It was no ordinary knife, it was more like a six-bladed knuckle duster.‘He made a slashing movement at me. I stepped back. He missed me, fortunately.’
Mr Corti said that while McCalium was off balance, he grabbed both of his wrists and managed to pin his arms against the wall.
He added he asked McCalium to drop the knife but he wouldn’t.
Mr Corti said: ‘I shouted to my wife to ring the police.
‘I was absolutely petrified.
‘As I saw it, it was a matter of do or die so I let his wrists go. Fortunately the element of surprise was with me, so I adjusted my position and hit him with my right hand. It was just below the eye.
‘I did not knock him out, but he was stunned. I heard the knife drop. We grappled. I was trying to drag him out of the back door. We both fell to the floor. I had to subdue him by punching him, which I did not take a great deal of pleasure in.”
The jury heard he then lay on top of McCalium until the police arrived.
Frankly, I’m a bit surprised that an English court acted so sensibly, from some of the stories I’ve been hearing lately.