A BURGLAR growled at and bit a man who confronted him as he burgled an outbuilding.

In a statement read out in court victim Hitesh Patel told Judge Graeme Smith: "I keep seeing his teeth when he was growling at me in my mind and smelling the intoxicants on him.

"My injuries will heal but the mental pain he has caused me and my family, we will have to live with that for a long time."

His attacker, William Steele, is a prolific thief and would have been subject to a mandatory three year jail sentence for "three strike" domestic burglaries if he had broken into the main house instead of an outbuilding.

But, even though the building was on Mr Patel's property in Radcliffe Road, it is not classed as being part of a domestic dwelling.

Therefore, 33-year-old Steele, who pleaded guilty to causing Mr Patel actual bodily harm and burglary, was jailed for 16 months instead.

William Donnelly, prosecuting, told how Mr Patel, his wife and daughter returned to their home after an afternoon walk on August 24 to see a man in the outhouse at the rear of the property.

"He went over to challenge that individual. The response from the man, who turned out to be the defendant, was that he was using the garden as a cut through," said Mr Donnelly.

Steele was holding a bag of tools he had found in the building and a wooden baton.

"There was then a struggle and Mr Steele used the baton on Mr Patel to strike him about the body, causing injury," said Mr Donnelly.

"That knocked Mr Patel to the floor and the struggle continued. Mr Patel says Mr Steele was growling at him throughout the fracas and he felt a bite at one stage."

But Mr Patel was able to "turn the tables" on Steele and, with the help of neighbours, detained him until police arrived.

Mark Friend, defending, said Steel, of Duke Street, Bolton, has previously been a "prodigious" user of amphetamine and has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

He added that Steele has previously been caught sneaking into garages and outbuildings.

"No doubt it came as some considerable surprise when Mr Patel appeared at the door," said Mr Friend.

"What followed was the defendant's entirely unacceptable and completely inappropriate attempts to try and secure his release from that outhouse."