COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The remaining ashes are now tainted with dirt and gravel from the roadside



A heartless burglar who broke into a woman’s home during the night stole a metal tube which held the ashes of her late partner – and then callously emptied it out in the street.

Although the police helped the distraught woman sweep up what they could, the remaining ashes are now tainted by being mixed with dirt and gravel from the roadside.

And a judge at Warwick Crown Court told burglar Conner Rickhuss it was "one of the most grave aggravating features" he had ever come across.

Rickhuss, 22, who is from Coventry but of no fixed address, was jailed for just under two years and five months after pleading guilty to the burglary.

But jailing Rickhuss for 876 days, Judge Lockhart told him: “This is one of the most grave aggravating features of any case I have had to deal with for a long time.

“If never it was driven home to you, it is about to be driven home now the effect of the type of conduct that you consider to be normal in your life.

“The complainant in this case had the enormous misfortune to lose her partner at a frighteningly young age to disease. She had to go through the trauma of that and of him being cremated.

“All that was left of him was a pile of ashes.

“You, no doubt moving about the city, decided you needed something and decided to go into her house, an occupied house, at night, and you broke in and took some cigarettes and the ashes of her partner.

“They were then simply scattered onto the pavement as you moved away with that urn.

“One can only imagine the horror she felt as she had to reconcile herself to the fact that this had happened and, with the help of the police, gather up the remaining ashes from the roadside.

“She says ‘This is all I had left of him. All I have are some of the ashes with gravel mixed in with them.’

“I don’t have to say anything more to you, other than that the disgust society will feel for you is something you will have to live with as you go forward. Go away and reflect on how you feel about what you have done.”