A woman who woke in the early hours to find a stun gun wielding burglar in her bedroom has slept with a knife under her pillow ever since.Intruder Erskine Phillips was fought off by victim Gina Liburd’s boyfriend, who smashed his head into a wall and put him in hospital with serious injuries.Ms Liburd, 27, said of the after-effects of the attack last June: “I still can’t sleep. I sleep with a knife under my pillow and I wake up every hour and go looking through the house, making sure everything’s locked up.”Phillips was sentenced to 12 years in jail by a judge yesterday. Supreme Court heard he was Ms Liburd’s next-door-neighbour, and broke into her home while her sons, aged 11 and nine were in the house.She awoke to find him in her bedroom, dressed in black, wearing a ski mask and armed with a stun gun.“I was just screaming; I couldn’t stop screaming. I thought he had a gun in his hand but it was actually a Taser,” she recalled.He screams woke her boyfriend Wayne Wales, who was asleep next to her, and he confronted Phillips.Despite the burglar opening fire on him with the stun gun, Mr Wales chased him outside and bashed his head repeatedly into a wall, knocking him out.The burglar was found to be armed with condoms, a flick knife, a pillow case and duct tape.He had pocketed Ms Liburd’s passport, social insurance card and voter’s card during the burglary.She is convinced he would have attacked her if Mr Wales hadn’t fought him off.“He was going to sexually assault me. He came in masked and with duct tape,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I keep asking him why would he break in and come in my house.”Phillips claimed to probation staff that he’d been in a “one sided” relationship with Ms Liburd for 18 months and wanted to intimidate her by burgling her home. According to her, that is a lie.“I used to speak to him and one day he invited me and my friend for codfish and potato,” she said, adding that the next time she saw him was when he broke into her home.Mr Wales suffered cuts and bruises in the altercation with Phillips, and was arrested and kept in custody for two days.Ms Liburd said she understands police had to detain him until they established what happened, but it caused additional stress.“It was bad enough that it had happened and then I was worried about Wayne and how he was doing. They didn’t even take him to the hospital that day,” she said.She added of Mr Wales: “I cannot stop thanking him for being there that night and doing that for me.”Ms Liburd said her sons have been afraid to sleep in their own home since the crime, and so has she. She lost her job through the stress of the crime and has not been able to find a new place to live.She fears Phillips will be released from prison before he has completed his sentence and end up living next to her again.“He owns the house next door. He’s going to get out and I’m still going to be there,” she said. “I don’t think 12 years is enough, and he’s going to get out on parole earlier.“My life is ruined. I can’t sleep and I will never, ever be the same again.”