A thug who was part of a gang that broke into an elderly couple’s WGC home and battered the woman with a metal bar has been jailed for life.

Darren Lewis and three masked men left Varna Fisher, 81, and her bed-ridden 85-year-old husband Mortimer too terrified to return to their house.

Mortimer died three months later.

Lewis, 35, of Napier Road, Croydon, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.

The gang travelled from South London late at night on July 30 last year after being tipped off by a carer, who had recently stopped working at the house, that Mrs Fisher kept money under her pillow.

Mr Fisher woke to find a hand over her mouth and four men wearing balaclavas standing over her.

As her husband heard what was happening from his bedroom, he was unable to do anything to protect his wife.

Her room was ransacked and she was thrown onto the bedroom floor.

Under her pillow the gang found a purse, with £250 in it, and her mobile phone.

They demanded a PIN number for her bank cards, and she was struck across the face twice by a metal bar.

The prosecution at St Albans Crown Court alleged Lewis was the man with the bar - which he denied.

Lewis, 35, of Napier Road, Croydon, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.

His minimum term was set at 15 years, meaning he can not apply to be released on licence until he has served seven-and-a-half years.

At an earlier hearing, at the Old Bailey, three co-defendants were jailed.

Clinton Jackson, 25, was sentenced to 18 years after denying the charge. Marvin Semper, 30, and his brother Jermaine Kellman, 29, were sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty.