Woman guilty of biting Self's wife

A burglar who broke into novelist Will Self's home and bit his wife faced a big prison sentence today.

Heroin addict Tania Chaves, 29, was convicted at Inner London Crown Court. Judge Peter Grobel remanded her in custody for sentencing next month and warned it was "likely" she would be jailed.

Chaves has 14 burglary convictions and was jailed in 1998. The jury heard Mr Self describe how he and writer Deborah Orr, who was bitten on the hand, had fought with Chaves in the garden of their terrace home in Stockwell.

"I grabbed hold of her and hung on. She was trying to get away and trying to bite," he said.

Chaves, of no fixed address, was unanimously convicted of burglary and assault.

Outside court, Ms Orr said she remained a firm supporter of controversial Lambeth police commander Brian Paddick and the case had not altered her views on the link between drugs and crime.