A pensioner was left traumatised after she was attacked in the city centre in broad daylight.

Christine Couton, 72, was dragged to the ground by drug addict Lisa Brannan who was desperate for money to fund her habit.

In a statement Mrs Couton, who was due to go on holiday the day after the attack in March, said: "The whole incident has left me traumatised, shocked, angry and shaken up. It has left me frightened and unnerved."

Bradford Crown Court was told that she was running a few last-minute errands before her trip and was making her way back to her car in the Rawson Street car park when Brannan struck.

Mrs Couton said that she felt as if someone had jumped on her back and she was dragged to the ground as Brannan tried to wrestle her handbag away from her.

The strap snapped but the attack was stopped by passers-by Heather Moore and Andrea Wilson who were commended by Judge James Stewart QC.

Mrs Coulton's husband was sitting in their car nearby but was unable to stop the attack.

Brannan, 27, of Oakfield Grove, Manningham, was arrested close by and when interviewed fully admitted what she had done.

In mitigation her barrister Jayne Beckett told the court that the mother-of-one, who pleaded guilty to attempted robbery, was ashamed for what she had done.

She admitted that she had targeted a vulnerable victim.

Mrs Beckett told the judge that her client had a well-entrenched drug problem that had led to numerous other problems.

She was jailed for three years and Judge Stewart told her: "You targeted an old lady. She fell to the ground and you tried to rob her of her handbag and it was only because of the public spirit of two passers-by that you were caught.

"Such attempted robberies in the city centre of old people who are targeted inevitably produces a substantial sentence of imprisonment."