A PENSIONER who held off armed raiders when they broke into his York home has welcomed moves to give householders the right to fight back against burglars.

Roy Handley, 70, said he would shoot anyone else trying to break in, but said he would not aim to kill.

"I would shoot him in the legs," he said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday it was worth considering a change in the law to protect people using force to defend their homes against criminals, to send a clear signal that the Government was "on the side of the victim, not the offender".

Mr Handley's son, Andrew, was shot by masked robbers during a raid on his home at Elvington last year. The older man managed to chase the raiders off by producing an empty shotgun.

The haulage firm boss said today: "If a man is coming for you with a gun, I believe you have a right to shoot him in the legs to protect yourself and disarm him until the police arrive."

He would still like the law to be strengthened to ensure he was not at risk of ending up being prosecuted himself.

But Mr Handley, boss of A1 Haulage, believed solicitors and barristers would block any changes, because they made too much money out of criminals. "The politicians stand up there yapping and chatting, but it won't happen, will it?" he said.

He said last year's incident - in which three men tricked their way into the property by shouting "police raid", and pistol whipped and shot Andrew in the leg - had changed his life.

He now listened for noises at night, even though he had stepped up security.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said that Chief Constable Della Cannings was not commenting on the debate sparked by comments from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens.

York MP Hugh Bayley today said: "Victims of crime need to be protected and the law should be strengthened, but we must not go for a gun culture, like the United States, or far more people will die."

Updated: 16:17 Thursday, December 09, 2004