Mother's emotional visit to prisoner

Margaret and Paul Foxley's daughter was killed in July

The courage shown by a mother from Colne after the death of her daughter is helping a burglar who broke into her home see the error of his ways.

Margaret Foxley told the burglar the laptop he stole contained precious family photographs of her daughter who, soon after the break-in, was killed in a car crash.

Margaret met with the burglar at Preston Prison.

She says all the family were unnerved by what had happened.

"It stops you sleeping, you just can't rest, you don't feel happy or comfortable in your own home," she said.

The police arrested the burglar just before Christmas. He told officers he wanted his apology to be passed on to the family.

'Good in everybody'

The one person who showed most sympathy for the offender was Margaret's daughter Jessica.

"She's the type who always sees the good in everybody," Margaret says.

"When we related this message Jessica was thrilled to bits. She could see there may have been a deep reason for doing it."

As the family managed to put the burglary behind them they had to deal with the tragic death of Jessica, who was killed in a car crash in July.

It was a difficult time but when Margaret was asked to take part in a face to face meeting with the man who had burgled their home she still agreed, despite what had happened.

In fact it was the sympathy that Jessica had expressed for the offender back at Christmas time which inspired Margaret. The family's most recent photos of Jessica had been stored in the laptop which had been sold by the burglar and were lost forever.

But Margaret was still determined to meet this man.

"I wanted to do to it, it was emotional thing to do. It was such an opportunity to make the actual criminal think about what they had done, to know the traumatic effect it had on our particular family."

So it was that Margaret, accompanied by Police Constable Dave Pasco, went to Preston Prison, where she sat opposite the very man who had caused her family so much heartache. PC Pasco says it was a meeting he will never forget.

Change his ways

The meeting, which lasted nearly four hours, is part of a scheme to persuade criminals to go straight.

It got off to a slow and nervous start before Margaret decided to make sure the burglar knew the full impact of what he had done. Margaret says it got very emotional when she spoke about her daughter and the sympathy she had shown.

"I asked him how much he had got for laptop, I pushed him on that and I told him why it was so special, that we would never have the photos again. When I told him about the loss of my daughter, he was devastated, the atmosphere changed."

When the prisoner then told Margaret of his own personal grief at the loss of a relative there was a kind of emotional bond between prisoner and victim. Margaret now hopes the man, who is in the middle of a four year sentence, will change his ways and will listen to the message that Jessica passed on, to give him a second chance.

"It's my hope that I can follow his progress from now on... and he's going to really, really let me down big time if he doesn't stick to his word," she said.