A BRAVE woman picked up a shoe and challenged burglars she found in her Wisbech home late at night. Jane Parker was in bed when she heard her window latch being opened and an ornament being moved, and was confronted by two men. She picked up a shoe and c

A BRAVE woman picked up a shoe and challenged burglars she found in her Wisbech home late at night.

Jane Parker was in bed when she heard her window latch being opened and an ornament being moved, and was confronted by two men.

"She picked up a shoe and challenged them," Fenland magistrates heard from prosecutor Andrew Williams on Wednesday. "Both men walked out calmly and left."

DNA tests on the kitchen window led to the arrest of 49-year-old Peter Jackson, who admitted burgling the flat on March 7, and burgling the Wisbech Wool Shop on February 28.

Mr Williams told how Ms Parker heard a knock at her door before the burglary, and saw two men in the rear yard of her flat, one was standing in a shopping trolley.

After hearing the window latch open, she got dressed, and heard footsteps on the landing.

A purse containing around £85 in cash and some bank cards was stolen during the burglary. She later told police: "I do not know what I would have done if they had attacked me. I no longer feel safe in my own home."

Jackson told police that his unnamed accomplice had taken the purse.

When Jackson broke into the wool shop in Union Street by smashing a pane of glass in the door, he left blood smears on the door and wall. He stole nothing, and was traced by DNA testing.

When arrested, Jackson said he was drunk when he smashed the glass panel, cutting his arm and leg.

He was remanded in custody, and will be sentenced by Cambridge Crown Court.