A BURGLAR in a Halloween mask who ripped the rings off a great-grandfather’s fingers and held a meat cleaver to his disabled wife’s throat has left his victims too frightened to return home.

Wheelchair-bound Sandra Lockyer, 62, was so traumatised by Monday evening’s attack it triggered a series of epileptic fits.

Her husband Jeffery, 60, was kept in hospital overnight as doctors monitored his heart.

The couple were the victims of an attack at their Chalgrove home, which has left the community shocked.

It is thought the burglar might have known the vulnerable couple and deliberately targeted them.

At about 5.30pm on Monday, a man wearing a brown latex Halloween mask and a black hooded-top burst into their bungalow at Bower End and held a black-handled meat cleaver to Mrs Lockyer’s neck.

He wielded a knife in his other hand.

The grandmother-of-four said the intruder shouted at her husband: “This is for real, Jeff. I want all your gold and all your money.”

He pulled four gold rings off Mr Lockyer’s fingers and a bracelet from his wrist before fleeing.

The couple, who both suffer from angina, were taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital by ambulance after the attack.

They are now too scared to return home.

Fighting back tears last night, Mrs Lockyer told the Oxford Mail: “I’m just scared of everything now.

“I was sitting in front of the TV doing a puzzle and I heard somebody charging in – the next minute his hands were round my neck.”

The couple have lived in Chalgrove for 20 years and Mrs Lockyer said they had always got on with everyone in the village.

Their daughter Caroline, 35, said: “We need to get every possible help to catch this guy. I just thank God that they’re still alive and he didn’t slit my mum’s throat.

“They talk to everybody and they help anybody out. Now they can’t go back home.

“Even the noise of a man’s voice scares my mum.”

Mrs Lockyer said her attacker was about 5ft 8in tall, wearing trousers or tracksuit bottoms and dark padded gloves.

Mr Lockyer, a retired Pressed Steel factory worker, said the intruder smelled of alcohol.

Det Sgt Alan Clements, of Thames Valley Police, said the incident had been “particularly distressing”.

He said: “The burglar left the house on foot, but could have had a vehicle parked nearby.

“I appeal to anyone who might have seen a vehicle in the area at the time to get in touch.”

l Anyone with information on the incident, which police are calling an aggravated burglary, is urged to call Det Sgt Clements on 0845 8505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.