KEY POINTS:
"I'm just sorry I hurt him."
Those words come from a 73-year-old Northland grandmother, who bravely turned the tables on an intruder and stabbed him with his own knife.
Fearing for her life, the Mangawhai pensioner wrestled the knife from the man's hands and stabbed him twice after
he allegedly broke into her bedroom and tried to sexually assault her.
Yesterday, the plucky grandmother was back at her home of more than a decade, where she lives alone.
She told the Herald on Sunday she was recovering well from Wednesday night's ordeal. "I'm doing fine, thank you, darling. This boy is going away. I'm just sorry I hurt him."
The woman, whose actions the police have described as "courageous", said on Friday she would not let the cowardly attack get the better of her.
"I'm going to the races tomorrow."
She added she did not think twice about defending herself. "It just came naturally, I guess."
She praised the local police and tight-knit community for helping to achieve a quick arrest.
Meanwhile, the woman's neighbours are shocked and disgusted by the cowardly attack.
Lorraine Jennings, a 65-year-old great-grandmother who also lives alone just two doors down, said she suspected she knew who the offender was.
"For someone to pick her out like that... If it is that guy, everyone is just disgusted. If I ever see him I will skewer him. The men here are really angry."
She kept a machete for gardening and stressed she would not hesitate to use it against an intruder. "The police know I have it. I'm not going to let them [intruders] kill me."
The first she knew of the attack was when her five sons began calling after hearing the news on the radio. "They thought it was me at first. They were angry."
Mrs Jennings praised the woman's heroic actions and said she would be petitioning Prime Minister Helen Clark for new laws allowing women to arm themselves. "We need a law that says women can carry something around that will at least hurt a man."
Mrs Jennings said a security system had been installed at her neighbour's house about a year ago.
"It's a holiday area, so there are lots of strangers coming and going - we like to be on the alert."
Another neighbour, Ray McIntyre, said he was proud of the woman's actions. "I wonder how on earth she managed to get the knife off him. The police came round yesterday and they said it could have been a lot worse."
He said the incident was a sad example of Mangawhai becoming "just another suburb of Auckland".
Police arrested a 49-year-old Mangawhai local on Thursday and charged him with aggravated burglary and attempted sexual violation.
Name suppression was granted to the man, who hobbled into the North Shore District Court in police-issue blue overalls. He is due to reappear on Thursday.
