THE criminals who prey on the elderly are the lowest of the low - contemptible cowards whose targets are the frail and solitary.

Yet though these rats shock decent, law-abiding folk whenever they strike, can any have sunk to the hideous depravity of the monster who attacked and robbed a vulnerable old woman in her home in Blackburn at the weekend?

For, not only is the victim 89 years old, she is also deaf and half blind. Yet the swine who broke into and ransacked her home had not a moment's concern for her age or her condition.

Imagine her horror - she was fast asleep in her living room when suddenly she was shaken awake by an evil brute shouting in her face.

The thug then pushed her upstairs before fleeing with hundreds pounds that he had stolen. It was, she says, the most frightening experience of her life. She is still shaking so much that she cannot hold a cup of tea.

For anyone, whatever their age, to have to suffer such an ordeal is dreadful. But for someone so old and so vulnerable to undergo it is outrageous in the extreme. It is little wonder that even case-hardened police officers are shocked and angry, to the extent that they believe that even members of the criminal fraternity themselves will share their revulsion and turn in the evil monster who did this.

Let us hope they are right, for this man deserves protection from no one and no mercy, either, from law when he is caught. Only the maximum prison sentence will suffice for such a wicked and merciless cur.