Addict robbed wheelchair victim

Miss Prentice says she is suffering from nightmares and flashbacks

A teenage heroin addict robbed a disabled woman to feed her habit, a court has been told.

The 17-year-old girl, who cannot be named, struck while Juliet Prentice winched her wheelchair into her car in a disabled parking bay in Tiverton.

She grabbed Miss Prenctice's handbag and stole £10 from her purse.

The magistrate at Exeter Youth Court described it as "despicable" and sentenced the Tiverton girl to a nine month community rehabilitation order.

She was also told to pay her victim back the £10 in compensation.

The court was told Miss Prentice, who is in her 30s and crippled with rheumatoid arthritis, could not give chase to the thief.

She has made my life hell Juliet Prentice

The defendant admitted the robbery and asked for a further 11 offences to be taken into consideration.

Miss Prentice told the court she felt "vulnerable and violated" and had suffered from nightmares and flashbacks since the incident at Exe Vale Leisure Centre in Tiverton.

In a victim impact statement, she said: "It was a very cowardly thing to to someone in my position."

She had been targeted in the past by yobs, she said, and the robbery had "started it all off again".

Slapped face

Mr Jeremy Tricks, defending, said: "Clearly this is an emotive crime. No-one likes the sound of it."

He said the girl was ashamed of her actions and had been slapped in the face by an angry member of the local community.

Mr Tricks told the court the girl stole to fund her habit and that of her older, live-in boyfriend, saying she was "stealing for two".

The chairman of the bench said: "This is one of the most despicable crimes I have heard in 20 years as a magistrate.

"If you stay on this path you will finish up in prison."

He said the girl - who admitted she was still taking heroin but not offending to pay for it - will also have to talk to her victim as part of her sentence.

After sentencing, Miss Prentice criticised the justice system, claiming it helped the perpetrator, but not the victim.

"She has made my life hell. I am too scared to go out and this has affected all aspects of my life," she said.