Despicable thieves looted a woman’s house while she was at her dying grandmother’s bedside.

Raiders forced their way in to Kelly Sparks’ home in Hedingham Road, Halstead while she was saying her final goodbyes to her grandmother, Annie Thrower, at hospital in Romford.

The burglary is just one of ten that the Gazette is aware have taken place in the last fortnight.

A camera containing the only photographs Ms Sparks had of her grandmother and her children together was taken in the raid, along with her grandmother’s gold sovereign.

The thieves conducted a tidy search of Ms Sparks home and she only realised she had been burgled when she noticed the tap in front of her kitchen window had been broken.

She said: “I am devastated and so angry. The sovereign and the camera were such sentimental items.

“I know I may never get them back but if the person who did this is reading this, please just return the memory card, its the only pictures I have of my grandmother and my kids.”

The burglary happened between 6pm on October 31 and 8am on November 1.

Full report in this week's Gazette