Published at 11:25, Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Described as one of the most despicable and diabolical burglaries Carlisle police have had to deal with, the drugs related violation of a city widow’s home has been detailed in court.

It was a heartless crime, carried out by an addict to fund his heroin habit. With not a thought for the deep distress he was adding to an elderly woman’s already unhappy life, Peter Vickers – a man with 172 previous convictions – ransacked her home, stealing precious items of irreplaceable sentimental value.

Vickers was jailed for nearly five years by Carlisle Crown Court for the burglary and his involvement in a Carlisle heroin dealing ring.

His victim, who had been widowed only weeks before, returned to her home to find a scene of devastation and her treasured mementoes gone.

In mitigation, Vickers had pleaded his crimes were symptomatic of the blight drugs have on society.

But any who would prefer more sympathetic approaches to drugs offenders – rather than stiff penalties for their crimes – should think first of the victims of illegal substance-fuelled offences.

It is they who need and deserve the full weight of intolerant law on their sides. Victims – not habitual users who have chosen lives on the edge – need to know their rights to lives of law-abiding peace and decency are fully enshrined in uncompromising law.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk