EVEN in this day and age the sheer nastiness shown by a group of schoolgirls to an 86-year-old cancer sufferer Violet Looms of Wootton Bassett beggars belief.

The decent majority cannot begin to imagine what motivates children aged about 13 to torment a harmless old lady and tell her she is too old to live.

However, a large part of the blame can surely be laid at their families' doorsteps.

Children who are brought up to respect and sympathise with the elderly do not get their kicks from abusing old people who live alone.

If these unpleasant adolescents are caught they and their parents should be made to answer for the spiteful antics which have made Mrs Looms' life a misery.

Let us hope, that, now the police have promised to investigate these dreadful crimes the young culprits are brought to justice.

Then they may begin to comprehend just how cruel they have been.

The vulnerable old people deserve better than this.