A woman who returned to her Lowestoft home to find two burglars in her kitchen chased after them and grabbed one of them by the leg as he tried to climb over a wall, a court has heard.

The woman had left her home in Nightingale Road, Lowestoft, secure when she went out during the afternoon on May 5.

She realised something was wrong when she returned at 8pm and noticed some items had been moved in her hall, Ipswich Crown Court heard yesterday.

She was then confronted by two men in her kitchen and shouted at them to get out of her house, said Hugh Vass, prosecuting.

The men ran empty-handed out of some patio doors into the garden and were chased by the woman, who grabbed one of them by the leg as they scrambled over a 6ft wall into a neighbour's garden.

The training shoe of the man grabbed by the woman had come off and when 19-year-old Adam Tuffield was arrested shortly afterwards on the nearby beach he didn't have any shoes on, said Mr Vass.

Scenes of crime officers found blood by a door which had been forced open by the burglars and this matched Tuffield's DNA.

Tuffield, of Morton Road, Lowestoft, admitted burglary and being in breach of a 16-week suspended sentence.

He was sentenced to eight months' detention in a young offenders' institution for the burglary and Judge John Holt activated the 16-week suspended sentence to run consecutively.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she had found the burglary 'very distressing' and no longer felt safe in her home.

Warwick Aleeson, for Tuffield, said he had some learning difficulties and was genuinely sorry for what he had done.

He had committed the burglary at a time when his life lacked focus. 'Sadly he joined in with other people to commit the burglary and now regrets it,' Mr Aleeson added.