Derek Blamire, 82, said the ‘monster rodent’ had been lurking around for ‘a few weeks’ (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)

If you’re not a fan of rats, look away now because a great-grandad has caught one the size of ‘baby’ – and it looks like something out of a horror film.

Derek Blamire, 82, from Blackburn, says rats have always been a problem in his garden but this one he caught recently has topped them all.

The great-grandad lures the vermin with poisoned traps and in the past year has caught 50 of massive beasts.

But his wife Sylvia, 80, was ‘scared to death’ when her husband unexpectedly revealed his latest capture to her.

The rat, which Sylvia was then made to photograph, measures a whopping 18-inches in length – which Derek compared to a ‘baby’.

The photo shows the 6’1 rat catcher stood holding a litter-picker with the monster rodent caught in its grasp.

The scary find has not put him off catching more rats in his garden.

He said: ‘If they keep coming, I’ll keep catching them.’

Derek said it is the biggest rat he’s come across after being plagued for seven years by them (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)

The rat was caught by Derek (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)

Derek recalled the lead-up to catching the elusive rodent.

‘It’d been knocking about for a few weeks,’ he said.

‘It was quite big, from nose to tail it was about 18 inches long. It was the length of a small baby.

‘I’ve lived here for about seven years and I’ve caught over 50. Sometimes I poison them, sometimes I catch them in a trap.’

He believes the rats come off spare land next to his garden and are attracted by the food he puts out for the birds.

Wife Sylvia was left scared by the rat (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)

Derek believes the bird feeder attracts the rats (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)

Derek finds that laying traps for the rodents to scurry into doesn’t work on the older rats.

He said: ‘I feed the birds you see and if you feed the birds it’s obvious rats are going to turn up. There are probably more rats than people.

‘I put seed and fat balls out for the birds. It attracts all sorts of birds – jackdaws, starlings, magpies, sparrows, robins and wrens.

‘Rats breed pretty quickly. There are small ones, which are young ones, and older ones.

‘The young ones are pretty easy to catch but the older ones are really crafty, they won’t go in the trap and they won’t eat the poison so you’re lucky to catch one.

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‘The rats don’t bother me because I’m used to it, Sylvia doesn’t like them.’

His unimpressed wife added: ‘I was in the bungalow and Derek was outside, I thought he must have been in the garden.

‘He said “come out with your phone I’ve got something to show you.”

‘When I opened the door he was stood on the doorstep with that litter picker in his hand. It scared me to death.’

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The massive animal had been plaguing the elderly couple for a while.