A DRUG addict who burgled a widowed friend 11 days after his wife died has been jailed for a year for his “monstrous” crime.

Neil Thomas Clarkson, 40, of Norton Fitzwarren, stole items Lee Harper put together to help his three children remember their mother, including photos and jewellery.

Clarkson was sentenced at Taunton Crown Court on Friday after admitting burglary and possession of amphetamines before magistrates.

Prosecutor Caroline Boult said Mr Harper returned home on March 6 to find he had been burgled, with several of his late wife’s possessions missing, including a handbag, gold chains and rings, documents and their children’s savings books.

His neighbour Clarkson handed himself in to police two days later, when he said: “I wouldn’t have done the burglary if I wasn’t off my face.”

He was also found to be in possession of two wraps of amphetamines.

Miss Boult told the court: “He told the police he’d pawned the items for £50 and also hidden others which weren’t any use to him in a bag in some bushes.”

Paul Bitmead, defending, said Clarkson, who has been addicted to amphetamines for 15 years, was “shocked and appalled at his behaviour”.

Sentencing, Mr Recorder Robert Linford said Clarkson called Mr Harper “a friend who has been nothing but good to me”.

The judge added: “Going into his home and taking the things from his wife who had died shortly before is a monstrous thing to have done.”

Mr Harper sobbed in court as Clarkson, who received no separate penalty for possession of class B drugs, was jailed.