Blind pensioner Joyce Hailey pities burglar Sean Harding even though he dragged her naked from her bed and left her tied and gagged in a chair for hours.

A jury at Lewes Crown Court yesterday found Harding guilty of aggravated burglary and the false imprisonment of Mrs Hailey at her home in Courtney Gate, Hove, in the early hours of August 26, 1999.

He was jailed for eight years.

The court heard Harding subjected widow Mrs Hailey to a terrifying ordeal after he scaled scaffolding and broke into her fourth-floor home where she lived alone at about 3am.

He took her from her bed, tied her to a chair with apron strings, gagged her and told her he had a knife.

He then ransacked her home, stealing a diamond and amethyst ring, her dead husband's RAF badge and documents, together worth several thousand pounds. The ring has never been recovered.

The pensioner was left tied to the chair for almost six hours until she was able to raise the alarm at about 9am.

Grandmother Mrs Hailey, who has been living in Spain since the incident, told The Argus: "It's been so long I'm beginning to feel sorry for him. He must know he has done something stupid.

"I'm not a vindictive person and I don't know his background or why he committed this crime.

"He may have kids and they may have been hungry but I don't know if he's one of these layabouts.

"I haven't heard anything about him so I can only leave it up to the judge to decide his punishment."

Former painter and decorator Harding, 32, of Hardwick Road, Hangleton, Hove, was arrested several months after the break-in and admitted the burglary of a flat in the same block as Mrs Hailey's five days earlier on August 18, 1999.

He admitted stealing £3,200 worth of jewellery and a camera from a female pensioner who was out but he denied breaking into Mrs Hailey's home and subjecting her to the ordeal.

Yesterday Harding also faced sentence for the burglary of the home of an 86-year-old woman in Shoreham on August 22, 1999.

A jury at the court had found Harding guilty of that offence earlier this year.

In the Shoreham burglary, he broke into the home through a conservatory window while the pensioner was out and stole a gold necklace and bracelet.

Judge Charles Kemp sentenced Harding to five years imprisonment for aggravated burglary and two years for the false imprisonment of Mrs Hailey, to run concurrently.

He also received two years imprisonment for the Shoreham burglary to run consecutively and one year imprisonment for the burglary on the second flat in Courtney Gate, Hove, also to run consecutively.

Judge Kemp said: "I accept there was no gratuitous violence offered to that lady.

"She was a gutsy and courageous woman but she has told us she was frightened you would hurt her.

"It's a disgraceful way to behave and I am sure you know that."

After the case, Detective Chief Inspector Reg Hooke, of Sussex Police, said: "We're delighted with the verdict. We're delighted for the officers and the people who have worked so hard to get justice today and we're delighted for those people who are going to be safe because of the sentence imposed.

"I'm also delighted for Joyce Hailey, who has never fully recovered from this ordeal but has tried to come to terms with it."

Mrs Hailey, who gave evidence at the trial, said more needed to be done to tackle crime in Britain.

She said: "It's got to be stopped."

She returned to Spain after giving evidence to the court and says she was considering remaining overseas after making friends there.