A BALACLAVA-wearing knifeman robbed a “vulnerable” 83-year-old of his pension money after stalking him from a shop back to his home.

Wesley Walters burst into the sickly pensioner’s home and threw him into a chair with such force that both he and the chair crashed over.

As the pensioner lay injured on the floor, Walters reached into the man’s pocket and stole hundreds of pounds in cash.

Walters then ransacked the man’s home before leaving the injured man to pull himself to a neighbour for help.

Now Walters has been jailed for 13 years by a judge, who branded his actions as “dreadful”.

During Walters’ sentencing, at Southampton Crown Court, the court heard how the victim had visited the Post Office in St Mary’s Street, Southampton, on July 21.

The court heard the man, who had survived cancer three times, had withdrawn £600 of his pension money and used some of it to buy bread and milk.

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Prosecutor Kirsty Day said the pensioner returned home to his property in Golden Grove and left his door ajar as he put his groceries away.

She said: “He left the kitchen to find a man standing in the hallway holding a knife and with a balaclava on.

“He tried to take the knife of Walters but was unsuccessful and there was a struggle and it moved into the bedroom.

“In the bedroom there was a safe and during the struggle he tried to lift the safe and throw it at Walters, but he missed.

“Walters then grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him into a chair. He pushed with such force that the chair fell over with the victim in it.”

The court heard Walters then reached into the man’s pocket and stole the £600 pensioner cash, and another £250 he already had in his pocket, before ransacking the home.

Ms Day said the victim suffered a number of injuries in the fall, including a fracture to his wrist and torn ligaments in his shoulder – an injury which will be permanent.

She added that the victim was in hospital for two weeks and had since moved out of the home, having suffered weekly flashbacks about the incident.

Mitigating for Walters, Gemma White said her client had racked up a drug debt and was being threatened by those he owed money to.

In sentencing Walters, of Rampart Road, Southampton, for one count of robbery, Judge Rowland said: “You used a weapon, a knife, to threaten an 83-year-old man.

“To add to that you ransacked his property as well.

“It seems to me this was targetting of a vulnerable man. It was quite dreadful what you did.”

The court ordered that a count of causing grievous bodily harm to the victim lie on Walters’ file.