Jail for burglars of 104-year-old

Bernard Gallagher (left) and Mark O'Brien admitted the burglary

Two burglars who stole the life savings of a partially-sighted 104-year-old, have each been jailed for four years.

Bernard Gallagher, 23, and Mark O'Brien, 26, who lived on an Essex caravan site, admitted burglary in Islington last September.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard the pair were caught on police camera as they ransacked the north London home of Amelia Whale and her brother, 86.

Miss Whale died, aged 105, seven months after the burglary.

The court earlier heard Miss Whale had been alone in the house as cupboard after cupboard was searched and the contents strewn across the floor.

Fourth burglary

The two men and an accomplice, who is still wanted by the police, finally found a shoebox containing £2,000 and a further £60 in a drawer.

It was the fourth time the elderly pair's home had been burgled in just over a year.

After the last burglary, a special police camera had been installed in the property which caught the whole raid on film.

O'Brien (left) and Gallagher were caught on a police camera

Miss Whale told police that she lived in fear, feeling she had been deliberately targeted.

Her brother, who reported the matter as soon as he returned home, later told officers: "When the defendants themselves grow old I hope they will be on the receiving end of a crime like this so they will know what it feels like."

Following the sentencing, Det Serg Ewan Kindness, from Islington CID, said: "They had clearly pre-planned the attack as they were wearing rubber gloves.

"It is despicable that they targeted such an elderly vulnerable lady."

The two defendants, however, said they were guilty of nothing more than an opportunistic crime.