A GRANDAD who was beaten up on the street feels like a prisoner in his own home after his attaker was spared an immediate jail term.

Former army training instructor, Keith Harwood, 65, said he has stayed indoors "twenty-four, seven" since he was assaulted just yards from his Accrington home.

The attack took place as he walked to a local election polling station at Woodnook Baptist Church on Royds Street at 9.30pm on May 3.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Christopher Pilkington, 43, subjected the retired father-of three, who lives alone, to the unprovoked beating in the Nuttall Street area.

Pilkington, who admitted assault, was given a 12 months jail sentence suspended for two years, with a six month curfew, between 7pm and 6am, seven days a week after admitting assault.

Mr Harwood, originally from Darwen, suffered two black eyes and had his eyebrows split open during the beating, lives in fear of being attacked again, even though his attacker approached him at court to apologise.

Mr Harwood, who beat cancer over 10 years ago and has had three heart operations, said he crossed his arms over his chest during the attack because he was afraid the beating would trigger another heart attack.

Although he has travelled across Europe, both with the army and working as an upholsterer for various firms abroad in the 80s and 90s, he is now afraid to walk a few yards to the nearest pub.

He said: "I only left the house to see if my postal vote had gone in. I'd gone a couple of yards when I heard a bloke shout me from down the street.

"He came up and asked me if I knew where the Britannia Pub was, and the next thing I knew he had me pinned to the wall with one hand and was punching me with the other.

"He was a much bigger bloke than me and I concentrated on protecting my chest in case I had another heart attack.

"I was full of blood when I got to the polling station.

"They helped clean me up and called an ambulance.

"It has affected my eyes, but the main thing is I'm afraid all the time.

"Before, I would have gone for a few pints for the conversation and to play pool, but I haven't been the pub since.

"He expected jail, and so did I. I still don't feel easy but wasn't afraid at all to go to court.

"He approached me to apologise and I think he's a nice bloke when he's not drunk, but I'm still afraid sometimes."

Pilkington, a former roofer who has a criminal record, had been drinking before the attack, although he claimed in court to be just a recreational drinker.

He was given a suspended prison term last week but a judge told him he could easily have left court in a prison van.

Recorder Shaw said that because prisons were overcrowded Pilkington could be released early and added: "Mr Harwood would receive no direct benefit at all from simply locking you up."

Pilkington, of Marsden Street, Accrington, was also told to pay £1,250 compensation.