Ref. 26045-50That's the only word to describe the scum who have made 86-year-old Violet Looms' life a living hell. This widow, who is battling against lymph cancer, has had bottles and stones thrown at her home, dog faeces hung from trees and now a note telling her to 'Die, Bitch'. To make matters worse she says the police have not followed up on her complaints

AN 86-year-old widow who has cancer has suffered a weeks-long campaign of harassment culminating in a note left for her which told her to die.

But Violet Looms says both she and her daughter were told by the police that there is nothing they can do unless they know the names of the teenaged louts.

The note, which was taped to a bottle and left by the side of her house a few days ago, told her she was too old to live.

It also made a cruel reference to the lymph cancer which has left Mrs Looms with a swelling on her neck.

When the Evening Advertiser alerted the police to her distress, Chief Inspector Nick Ashley, chief inspector for the division which includes Wootton Bassett, pledged immediate action to visit Mrs Looms, reassure her and take whatever measures were possible to tackle the problem.

He said: "This is a police matter and there is something we can do.

"The first thing is to go and see her and take a report from her of what has happened.

"And items like letters and notes are evidence.

"This an offence of harassment, a criminal matter."

Ch Insp Ashley also pledged to investigate why her complaint was not dealt with.

Mrs Looms said the trouble started a few weeks ago when two girls aged about 13 knocked on her door at The Rosary in Wootton Bassett and asked to retrieve a ball from her back garden.

She refused to let them because she could clearly see that there was no ball there.

Since then, various teenagers have:

n Filled a bag with dog excrement and hung it from a tree in her garden.

Thrown handfuls of pebbles at her windows late at night.

Smashed a vodka bottle by the side of her house.

Thrown bottles and boxes filled with pebbles at the house.

Mrs Looms said: "All I want to do is live a peaceful life.

"I would say to the parents of these girls that what their daughters are doing is disgusting."

The pensioner had hoped something could be done to prevent her from being harassed.

But she said: "After it started happening, I went to the police station, but it was shut.

"I have phoned the police and my daughter has phoned the police, but I haven't had an officer here.

"The police asked me whether I knew who was doing it. I said I didn't and they said nothing."

Mrs Looms said she made the first call shortly after the abuse began, and that her daughter made a second call some weeks later.

She has not yet told the police of the arrival of the abusive letter.

She added: "If the police were here, they might catch them.

"There are some funny things going on these days."

Mrs Looms' neighbour, Lionel Taylor, 75, is horrified by what has been happening.

He said: "It is disgusting. If they were my children, they would get a belt."