Twins, 10, catch £1,700 mugger

A socialite author told today how she and her 10-year-old twin sons captured a female mugger who had just stolen £1,700 from her.

Lady Colin Campbell, who wrote a successful biography of Princess Diana, was attacked by the woman in a bookshop near her Chelsea home.

But as the robber and two men ran out, Lady Campbell's adopted Russian-born sons, Dima and Misha, raced after them.

Lady Campbell, 53, who is now on holiday in the Cayman Islands, said: "I wasn't frightened during the robbery, just angry. But when the boys chased the attackers I was terrified they would get hurt, so I joined in to make sure they were all right.

"The first time Misha grabbed her, some busybody member of the public intervened and told him to leave her alone. So, of course, she ran off again, and then both boys managed to grab her the second time.

"They held on to her, then I got there and, with the help of a couple of men, we held her until police arrived.

"I was amazed by how brave the boys were, so spirited. They are my little heroes. Who would have thought that two 10-year-olds could take on a fullygrown robber and win."

The mugger, Nuiva Gomez, 32, now faces prison and deportation to Chile after admitting last month's robbery. Blackfriars Crown Court heard that Gomez, who was born in Italy but is a Chilean national, had arrived in March on a six-month visitor visa and had already been cautioned for shoplifting.

She claimed she did not take part in the violence and did not know the two men. But Judge Richard Walker said he found this "rather difficult to believe". She will be sentenced next month.

She and the two men had encircled Lady Campbell - who is known as Georgie - in the shop after she had withdrawn money from a Sloane Square bank to pay for airline tickets.

One smeared Lady Campbell's trousers with ice cream. Gomez "pretended to sympathise" but then started kicking and punching her and snatched an envelope containing the money from her bag.

Misha said: "I was really angry. I chased her across the road - in fact I nearly got run over - and I grabbed her by the hair. But then this man told me to let go of her and she started to run away again."

Lady Campbell, a former fashion model, married Lord Colin Campbell, the second son of the Duke of Argyll in the Seventies, but divorced him soon afterwards.