A DRUG addict who broke into a church to steal met his match with the 74-year-old keyholder who stoutly defended the property, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The judge told Lee O’Hara, 43, that pensioner Michael Tomlinson, who tried to push him out of Horton Bank Methodist Church, was “made of sterner stuff than you”.

O’Hara, of Heatherlands Avenue, Denholme, was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to entering the church, on Great Horton Road, Bradford, as a trespasser with intent to steal.

Prosecutor Kate Batty told the court yesterday that O’Hara was homeless and on drugs when he broke into the church at 9am on August 6.

He smashed a window and damaged internal doors before trying to force a safe and putting a shredder and a Hoover into black bin bags.

But Mister Tomlinson and a heating engineer confronted him and he fled, only to attempt to climb back in through a window to receive his phone.

Mister Tomlinson warned him the police were on their way and struggled with O’Hara, pushing him back, Mrs Batty said. No one was hurt at the church and nothing was actually stolen.