AN elderly woman who found a man in her flat armed with a ten-inch kitchen knife told a court of her terrifying ordeal on Thursday.

Kathleen Morris, 69, of Telford Court, St Albans, told the jury at St Albans Crown Court how she had run from her flat screaming and banged on neighbours' doors but no-one had come to her aid.

The pensioner, who had suffered a stroke some five weeks before, was listening to the radio through earphones when the intruder entered her flat at about 2.45am on July 18 last year.

She said: "I was putting down the radio when I thought I saw a person; I thought it was my imagination.

"I got up and I went to the front door and then I noticed that it was a little bit ajar.

"Then I opened it all the way and stood on the landing; I looked back and I saw him."

Mrs Morris, who lives on the fifth floor of the 11-storey tower block in Alma Road, broke down in tears as she told the court how she had panicked and fallen over while running down the corridor knocking on neighbours' doors for help.

She said: "I was just so frightened; I just kept screaming and screaming."

Twenty-eight-year-old Desmond Asafo-Adjei of Hill End Lane, St Albans, was found guilty on Friday of aggravated burglary.

Judge Marie Catterson said he could expect a "lengthy and substantial" prison sentence for the crime.

Asafo-Adjei's lawyer Jonathan Ray claimed the man had barged into Mrs Morris' flat because he was fleeing an attacker who had threatened him with a knife.

Police found a kitchen knife hidden in a pile of shoes at Mrs Morris' flat which Asafo-Adjei claimed he had picked up because he was frightened. However, Mrs Morris insisted the knife did not belong to her.

Prosecuting lawyer Lucy Kennedy said: "Asafo-Adjei says he barged into Mrs Morris' flat seeking protection. We say he was not being chased; that is a story he made up.

"We say that at the time he went into the flat he was armed with his own knife."

It emerged in court that the man had been found guilty of carrying a similar weapon in St Albans city centre just weeks before and was still on bail for the offence when he broke into the Telford Court flat. He also had previous convictions for domestic burglary, affray and possession of heroin.

A statement from Telford Court resident Leanne McCulloch testified to the screaming which echoed around the tower block on the night of the burglary. She said: "It was very high-pitched and sounded like the person was absolutely terrified. It sounded like someone was being killed."

In a letter to the judge, read out after the proceedings, Mrs Morris told how her grandchildren no longer felt safe staying in the flat, which she had bought to be near them.

She wrote: "I have never experienced an ordeal like it."

Speaking after the trial, Mrs Morris described with distress how no one had responded when she cried out for help.

She said: "I could have been dead and not one person came to my aid.

"If people could hear me screaming, then why didn't they get up here and help me?"