When Patrick Walsh disturbed a cat burglar in his fourth floor flat at dawn earlier this summer, his first instinct was to protect himself and his possessions. He could not have foreseen the consequences.

In haste to escape, the intruder – who was on bail at the time and awaiting trial on burglary-related charges – stepped off the window ledge and fell to his death on the pavement below.

Mr Walsh, 56, a tree surgeon, rushed downstairs to give what first-aid he could to the dying man as on-lookers gathered at the rambling converted Victorian villa in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester.

He remembers that he was still in shock when a plainclothes detective told him that he was under arrest on suspicion of having pushed the 43-year old man, a habitual burglar, to his death. For the next week he lived on tenterhooks wondering whether he would be charged with a serious offence, before Greater Manchester Police announced that the matter was closed. His case, however, reopened the debate about the way members of the public are treated under the law when they make the split-second decision to intervene and have a go.

He said: “Suddenly, I was sitting in the back of a van under arrest wondering, ‘What the hell is going on here?’. I was taken to the police station and, at that point, it seems your personal liberty seems to disappear. My possessions and clothes were taken away. I had become a criminal.”

The simple facts of the case – that Mr Walsh had been awoken by noises, spotted the intruder and then had retreated to another room to check for accomplices when the man slipped off the roof – appeared to count for little.

The burglar, Terence Sandiford, was a known petty criminal. The ex-serviceman had been due to appear before magistrates on August 21 in Manchester on charges of going equipped to steal.

On July 11 he had allegedly been found in possession of the tools of the burglary trade: bolt cutters, wire cutters, screwdriver and torch. At the time of the burglary he had been living in a bail hostel.

After the incident Mr Walsh was immediately arrested and spent the entire day at the police station. He was left to contemplate the possibility of serious charges for the next four days.

Police had taken away the chainsaws and other equipment that he used for his job for scientific examination. He could not work and neither could he return to his flat, which was being treated as a crime scene. Later that week he returned to the flat with forensic science officers to show them anything they may have missed. There were also questions from police to answer.

He was told in a meeting with police officers the following Friday that he had no case to answer for murder, manslaughter or any other charge.

“During the whole interrogation process I honestly felt very uneasy,” he said. “All kinds of irrational fears came into play because I was in a state of shock and trauma.”

Mr Walsh said yesterday that he was sympathetic towards Jack Straw’s initiative because light needed to be shed on this part of the law. He believes the law should be changed so that there is a period of calm reflection between an incident and any arrests. “There should be a period when everybody steps back and gives you the benefit of the doubt. I was arrested immediately, the victim. I suddenly became the person under suspicion.”

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