A PENSIONER has spoken of her devastation after burglars trashed her home and stole her late husband’s ashes, along with jewellery worth £6,000.

This is one of two similar burglaries at the homes of retired women in Tetbury in just over a month.

Burglars took her late husband Ian’s ashes, which were inside a box in her bedroom after they broke into Mary Lennie’s home in Tetbury by forcing open patio doors.

They also took jewellery including a diamond necklace that Ian had given Mary on their wedding day, and war medals belonging to Ian’s father.

Mrs Lennie’s TV and blood pressure machines were also taken as well as her Volvo V40 car, which was later found in Cheltenham.

The burglars scattered Mrs Lennie’s clothes all over her home and stood on them, leaving them covered in muddy footprints.

She said the ordeal has left her feeling so shaken that a friend has had to move in with her as she is too scared to be at home alone.

Mrs Lennie, 66, explained that she had been planning to scatter Ian’s ashes at Ben Wyvis mountain, in Scotland, an area to which the couple had planned to move before he died.

Mrs Lennie said: “I believe what goes around comes around, and I just hope that something like this happens to them so they know what distress they caused.

“Do they realise the pain they cause? For the sake of what?

“Some of the things were materialistic but I can never replace his ashes, they are gone now for good.”

Mrs Lennie said that before the burglary she did not have a burglar alarm but has now installed one, as well as changing all the locks.

Her daughter Deborah  Smidt, appealed to the burglars to return her father’s ashes and the stolen jewellery.

Deborah, who took over running Cotswold Hose and Fittings from her mother, said her mother was "heartbroken" and desperately wanted the ashes and jewellery back.

If you have information on the burglary or the stolen items, call police on 101 quoting incident reference number 227  of December 3.

The burglary at Mrs Lennie's home was followed by a similar break-in elsewhere in Tetbury on January 16.

Thieves stole jewellery and a car from a 65-year-old woman's home while she was being treated in a hospice for terminal cancer.

Police said they are not ruling out the possibility that the two burglaries were carried out by the same culprits, as their investigation continues.