Terence Taylor and Paul Smith burst into Jane Surtees' sheltered housing bungalow in Armley and demanded cash from the widow who is so ill she lives and sleeps in a chair in her lounge.

Mrs Surtees fought for life after the heart attack and spent two months recovering in hospital.

A Leeds Crown Court judge jailed Taylor and Smith for a total of 14 years and three months.

Taylor has a string of previous convictions for burgling vulnerable pensioners including one past victim aged 100.

Taylor, 31, and Smith, 27, broke through Mrs Surtees' kitchen window as she slept at around 2.30am on February 11.

Prosecutor Tom Storey said Taylor told his victim to get out of her chair and when she told him she couldn't move he pulled her up and started searching for her purse.

When Mrs Surtees threatened Taylor with her walking stick he snatched it from her and threw it across the room.

The men fled when Mrs Surtees raised the alarm but returned as she talked to the operator, grabbed the telephone and continued ransacking the house.

Police discovered the men had stolen 180 morphine tablets, which Mrs Surtees used for pain control, a sweet jar full of small change and her handbags.

Judge Paul Hoffman jailed Taylor for seven years and nine months and Smith for six-and-a-half years.

He told them: "You left with minimal property having caused maximum terror…This lady was in the twilight of her life. She became physically sick and had a heart attack, having never had one before. I have no doubt in the slightest that was down to this incident.

"The psychological effects will be with her for as long as she lives. She was trying to enjoy the rest of her life but you two by your callousness have blighted it."

Mrs Surtees' granddaughter Dawn Emery, 29, of Holbeck, said outside court: "She was bubbly and feisty but now she cries all the time. These men have ruined her life."

Taylor, of Holdforth Close, Armley, had denied burglary but changed his plea to guilty soon after a trial got underway.

Smith, of Clyde Grange, Armley, changed his plea to guilty to burglary shortly before a trial started.

Smith also admitted two charges of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.