An MP has defended city police who were criticised for not responding quickly enough to a series of vandal attacks.

Ivor Caplin said Brighton and Hove police bosses had to give priority to serious or life-threatening incidents over non-urgent cases.

The MP spoke out after a 77-year-old widowed cancer victim claimed her home had been vandalised three times in five weeks.

She phoned Hove police station using the non-emergency line but claimed officers were not sent to investigate.

The woman, who lives in Portslade and wants to be known only as Beatrice, said police also failed to respond to a sixth attack when her garden fence was pulled down after her story appeared in The Argus.

Mr Caplin, MP for Hove and Portslade, met Chief Inspector Jane Rhodes, the area's new police commander, on Friday to hear about new neighbourhood policing teams (NPTs) which have been set up.

He said: "I expect, and the people of Brighton and Hove expect, the police to respond quickly to calls for help and in 95 per cent of cases they do so.

"People recognise senior officers have to give priority to urgent calls over the non-urgent ones using the resources they have available at the time.

"Unfortunately, it is the small percentage of non-urgent calls which people feel are not dealt with quickly enough which make the headlines.

"If there are major incidents taking place, such as the emergency at Gatwick or the Fatboy Slim concert in Brighton in the summer, they have to take priority."

He heard that at the time of Beatrice's original call police were dealing with a murder and two rapes.

Inspector Mark Powles said the pensioner had called about the damage to her fence and said the incident had happened some time during the previous two days.

He said: "At the time there were 11 outstanding incidents to be dealt with but because she was a repeat victim of crime we endeavoured to send an officer."

Although Beatrice claimed to have been a victim of crime three times in five weeks, she had only reported two incidents to police.

The first was on December 31 and the second on January 18.

She had reported a third incident but that had taken place in 2001.

Ms Rhodes said: "We will have to continue to prioritise the calls that we respond to. However, policing in the Hove area has changed with the introduction of the NPTs two weeks ago.

"There are now more officers available to respond to priority calls, to follow up non-urgent cases and to address community issues."