An 80-year-old Oxford woman who needs her phone for emergencies had her line disconnected after refusing to pay for sex chat calls she said she never made.

Eileen Brooks

Eileen Brooks, who lives alone in Cowley, said she felt vulnerable after phone company, ntl, cut her off three weeks ago.

Mrs Brooks suffers from Parkinson's Disease and other ailments. She is visited by a carer three times a day and was given a wristband by Oxfordshire social services -- with a number to call in case of emergency -- but she cannot use it without her telephone.

Her line was cut by ntl after she refused to pay £30 of her phone bill for three premium-rate phone calls.

Since being contacted by the Oxford Mail, ntl has apologised and reconnected Mrs Brooks's telephone.

A spokesman for ntl, Malcolm Padley, said: "We have spoken to the customer as a sign of goodwill and credited the account for the £30.94 queried and we are very sorry for any distress that may have been caused."

The calls were to an answerphone with a message recorded by someone called Katrina.

One of them was 18 minutes long.

An ntl engineer was sent to her home after Mrs Brooks complained about her bill, but when he found nothing out of order, the phone company cut her off until she agreed to pay up.

Mrs Brooks, however, remains adamant she did not make the calls.

She said: "I'm not paying for something I haven't done.

"I'm 80. I suffer from asthma, a heart condition and I'm diabetic. Do you think I would feel the need to phone sex chat lines? It's ludicrous.

"If I have a fall, or worse, there would be nobody I could contact for help. It's frightening."

Mr Padley added: "We have investigated the matter and take it very seriously."