Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::
A 79-year-old man who killed a burglar picked up a kitchen knife and warned him his weapon was "bigger than yours", an inquest has heard.
Richard Osborn-Brooks stabbed Henry Vincent to death in Hither Green, south-east London, in April last year.
He told Southwark Coroner's Court the 37-year-old had threatened him with a screwdriver, then "rushed forward" and "ran into the knife I was holding".
Coroner Andrew Harris ruled Mr Vincent was lawfully killed.
Mr Vincent's sister told the hearing her brother was "not a violent person".
"He was a father, he was a son, he was a brother. No one deserves to die," Rosie Vincent said.
Speaking by videolink, Mr Osborn-Brooks told the inquest he still believed the intruder was "intending to do me harm" during the break-in on 4 April 2018.
He said two men had knocked on his door, grabbed him and pushed him inside.
Both then demanded money as one then shoved him toward the kitchen and the other ran upstairs.
He told the hearing that when he grabbed the knife, Mr Vincent's accomplice fled out of the front door but the intruder came down the stairs holding the screwdriver and saying "get out of my way or I'll stick you with this".
Mr Osborn-Brooks said he had then warned him his weapon was "bigger than yours" as "I thought he would look at my knife... and he would take the opportunity to run out the front door which was open".
"He definitely didn't try to get out of the front door, he came towards me," he said.
Mr Vincent's cause of death was given as an incised wound to the chest.
In a statement, the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination said a toxicology report indicated "a recent use of both cocaine and heroin".
He said Mr Vincent "may have been experiencing the effects" at the time of the raid.
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