A FATHER-of-three fought off two armed robbers at his Milnrow home, while his wife and children hid inside their bedrooms.
Jonathan Spence, aged 46, was reading in the lounge of his house when a man walked in and asked for the time.
He leapt up to confront him but was then challenged by a second man who tried to stab him with a screwdriver.
The three men began fighting in the hallway, while his daughters aged eight and 15 years hid inside their downstairs bedrooms, with his wife and five-year-old son upstairs.
Mr Spence, an engineer, was repeatedly punched in the face by one of the men, with the other lunging at him with the screwdriver.
The pair then grabbed a purse and handbag containing cash and a mobile phone before fleeing the scene at about 10.30pm on Tuesday.
Mr Spence, who has lived in Milnrow for 20 years and at his home in Alexander Drive for five years, suffered bruising to his body and was left with two black eyes and a swollen nose.
He said: "When the first burglar entered the house the first thing I felt was shock that there was somebody trying to burgle my house.
"My immediate reaction was to stop them, so I leapt up to try and do something about it, then I got a further shock when their immediate response was to try and stab me.
"It was a bit comical - we have a very narrow hallway and the guy with the screwdriver was behind his mate, leaning across him trying to get me.
"The children definitely heard the noise. My 15-year-old daughter locked herself in her room, when she came out the whole thing was over.
"One of the guys punched me several times in the face, I had quite a heavy nose bleed and there was blood all over the hall.
"My daughter was quite distressed when she saw me.
"They were definitely opportunist thieves. If there is one thing that I've learned from this it's to keep your doors locked when you're in the house.
"If the porch door had been locked this would never have happened."
The first man is described as white, about 5ft 6ins, of slight to medium build, aged about 18.
He was wearing a light-coloured jacket and a dark woollen hat.
The man with the screwdriver is also white, 5ft 8ins, wearing a dark coloured hat and a dark jacket.
Detective Constable Keith Baron, said: "The victim and his family were terrified by the experience of being intruded upon in their own home.
"He is also recovering from his physical injuries.
"While we seldom deal with incidents like this in Milnrow, we are appealing for anyone who may have seen anything untoward in the area to call us."
Anyone with any information is asked to call police on 0161 856 8745 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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D.Ashworth, Rochdale (06/02/2010 at 12:50)
I hope the local community rallies around the family and gives them support, and also keeps an eye out for the evil robbers who are out and about.
Sympathy and best wishes to the family, and well done for standing up for your rights.
John Boy (06/02/2010 at 16:42)
Henrys Dog, Rochdale (08/02/2010 at 08:43)
Thats ridiculous British Justice for you.
Nash Smith (08/02/2010 at 19:32)
This man was nearly killed in his own home, for god's sake! The great social experiment has failed, we should have the right to arm ourselves in our own homes and shoot scum like that, on sight.
Trendy social engineers will giggle at my comments, but after 40 years of experimentation on us, show us how the nanny state has helped defend ordinary people at all. We cannot even go out at night, what kind of a hell has this country degenerated into?
We need a citizens constitution and basic set of rights of the person, like the Americans have. There, shooting scum who break into your home to stab you is part of those common-sense rights. And civilised.
It sounds horrible, but jailing scum makes no difference. They need to be eradicated.
R Marcus (12/02/2010 at 14:08)