Published: Thursday, 18th March, 2010 9:57am

'Burglar befriended my disabled son'

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By Rosalyn Campbell

DEVASTATED: Jim and his mother Isabel at their home

A TRAUMATISED mum has hit out at the 'scumbag' who befriended her disabled son and then burgled their home when he knew they were on holiday.

And her distraught son says he struggles to trust anyone now - after his friend betrayed him.

Heartless Craig Dalton, 26, targeted Isabel and Jim Gilmour's house to steal THREE cars and a huge haul of other goods.

He was only caught when he bragged to a prison inmate about the robbery in a series of text messages.

Heartbroken Isabel, 56, and her son, 37-year-old Jim - who suffers from cerebral palsy - lost thousands of pounds' worth of jewellery and other items.

Isabel told the Gazette: "We were totally traumatised to come home and see our house had been robbed.

"I just felt really angry that he could be so heartless and rash about it as if it was his God-given right - as if 'they're on holiday, it's there for the taking.'

"You feel sick, violated, that someone's invaded your privacy, someone that you didn't ask in.

"Jim wasn't eating or sleeping after it, he was really hurting and scared.

"He wouldn't answer the door, and he still won't answer the phone.

"I feel Craig used him and took advantage of his disability.

"He's an absolute scumbag."

Dalton waited until his friend and mother had gone off on holiday to Benidorm, then plundered their home along with an accomplice.

Isabel said: "As soon as we came in the drive, I saw the three cars were missing. I thought, 'that's a bit strange'. And when we came in the door, the coffee table was gone, and drawers had been disturbed and the jewellery box was missing.

"Craig stole things of sentimental value belonging to my mum and my sister. You can't replace them. It feels like part of my childhood has been taken from me.

"We never got the coffee table back. It was very unusual - there were only three of them made, and I bought it when we first moved in here, around seventeen years ago."

She added: "Jim used to go out all the time, he used to have quite an active social life - but now he doesn't trust people."

Jim said: "I go on my bike around all the back roads so that no one sees me. I don't want to see anybody at all."

At Paisley Sheriff Court last week, Dalton pleaded guilty to breaking into the property at Fulbar Street, Renfrew, between September 29 and October 6 last year and stealing jewellery, bank books, £110 in cash, a coffee table, TV set, DVD player, hi-fi system, CDs, 24 bottles of beer, a watch, perfume, three shirts, a games console and accessories, a jewellery box and three cars.

The court heard how the cars - collectively worth around £16,000 - had eventually been recovered, two of them near Dalton's home, but that most of the other items stolen, with a value of around £10,000, had not been recovered.

Kirsty McGeehan, defending Dalton, of Macdowall Street, Johnstone, said her client got himself into debt with drug dealers and as a result, his mother had been 'visited' in relation to what was owed, causing Dalton to resort to committing the crime.

She said: "He is not proud of what he has done."

Sheriff Neil Douglas said: "On one view there are no limits to the depths to which he will stoop" and sentenced Dalton to 20 months in jail.