Robber battered trying to rob a 71 year old boxer

From: The Sun

THIS is how a burglar looked after he made the mistake of breaking into the home of a 71-year-old ex-boxer.

Vicious Gregory McCalium, 23 - jailed for 4½ years yesterday - looked like a "car accident" victim after he was punched by battling grandad Frank Corti

Still got it ... grandad Frank Corti

Frank - woken by noises as he lay in bed with his wife Margaret - DODGED the knife as the yob lunged at him in his hallway, FEINTED and DECKED him with two massive right hooks.

The former Army boxer, who as a 16-year-old won the National Association of Boys Clubs Championship, then coolly made a citizen's arrest and waited for cops.

A judge yesterday told McCalium - who wound up with a black eye, split lip and severe swelling - he "got what he deserved".

After seeing him jailed, modest Frank insisted he had no choice but to "restrain" him. He said: "We are pleased he won't be troubling us for a few years."

Hero ... Frank in his heyday

The retired car worker told how he came face-to-face with the hooded lout at the foot of his stairs in Bolney, Oxford.

Frank - famous for his fearsome right hook when he boxed as a featherweight in the Royal Engineers - said: "He took a slash at me.

"If I needed to I would do it again. I had the advantage of having done some boxing training and retained the ability to punch." McCalium's lawyer told Oxford Crown Court: "Photographs of the defendant showed what looked like a car accident.

"Photos of the scene looked more like a murder scene."

Cocktail waiter McCalium - a troublesome neighbour of the couple - denied aggravated burglary but was convicted by a jury.

Recorder Angela Morris told him: "Luckily, Mr Corti was an able-bodied 71-year-old who was able to defend himself."

She added: "Elderly and vulnerable people are entitled to demand the protection of courts from people like you who decide to take matters into your own hands and enter a property with a weapon."

Frank, just 5ft 5in and who in his boxing heyday weighed 10st, said: "The element of surprise was with me and I hit him with my right hand - hard - just below the eye.

"He was almost knocked out and the knife fell out of his hand."

Childhood pal Colin Goodenough, 73, who used to spar with Frank at Baliol Boys Club, said: "I want to shake his hand. We need more like him."

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first