Eileen Kearsey, 79, says she was treated like a suspected terrorist when police followed up a complaint made two months earlier by her neighbour. She was eventually released without charge at 5pm the next day, after being questioned, fingerprinted and having a DNA sample taken.

Although falling short of apologising, police now acknowledge that Mrs Kearsey could have been dealt with in a “more efficient manner”.

The force has recently adopted a “get tough” campaign. The widow was one of hundreds of people accused of offences who were on a list that Roger Baker, Essex’s newly appointed Chief Constable, wanted to tackle. But officers called at her Chelmsford flat before she could make an appointment with the officer investigating her neighbour’s claims.

She said yesterday: “I was treated like a suspected terrorist. I was woken up by a banging on my door at 4am when I was fast asleep and heard a voice saying they were police and they had come to arrest me. I thought they had got the wrong address. I have never been in trouble with the police before in my life so I opened the door and found two big policemen standing there.

“I was in a daze, they told me to hurry up and get dressed or they would take me to the police station in my nightdress.

“I was too shaken to explain that my daughter had spoken to someone about the allegation and that we were waiting to attend the police station.”

Mrs Kearsey, who suffers from high blood pressure, was driven two miles to the town’s police station in a squad car with its blue lights flashing. She claimed not to have eaten while locked up, adding: “I didn’t have time to put on my watch when I was arrested so I lost all track of time, but I knew I had been in a cell for hours.”

Mrs Kearsey’s daughter Sandra Filomena, 58, a health worker, said that the Chief Constable should apologise personally. She said: “It is extraordinary to think that the police are prepared to arrest a confused old lady in the middle of the night and lock her up for half a day.

“My mother was a happy soul but she has been deeply traumatised by this horrible experience. She was left alone in a cell and sat there with her head in her hands for hours not knowing what was going to happen to her.”

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “We are looking into the circumstances, but effecting an arrest in the early hours of the morning is not unusual. But in reflection we should have dealt with this woman in a more efficient manner after she was brought into the station.”

Mr Baker vowed last month that his officers would make an extra 600 arrests in the first week of the campaign. In fact more than 1,000 suspects were arrested.

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