A CAREER burglar who ransacked a 92-year-old’s bedroom while she slept “stole people’s memories” by targeting wedding rings and family heirlooms.

Drug addict David Durrant, below, who has 98 previous offences to his name, broke into 12 homes in Oxford between May and June and was sentenced yesterday.

The 43-year-old was caught after pawning stolen rings using his own name at a ‘cash for gold’ stall in the Westgate Centre.

On June 23 he forced his way into a 92-year-old woman’s home in Botley.

The victim, who is deaf and had removed her two hearing aids before going to bed at 8.30pm, woke at 1.15am to find her room and house had been ransacked.

Among the items stolen were her wedding ring, gold earrings, brooches, two pearl necklaces and bank cards.

Richard Sharpe, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, said: “She is a lady of 92.

“This utterly shattered her confidence and will mar the rest of her life, it really cannot be understated what an effect it’s had on her.”

Just two days earlier, Durrant, of the Oxford Homeless Pathways night shelter in Luther Street, used a horseshoe to prize open a window at a 79-year-old woman’s home in North Oxford, Mr Sharpe said.

Durrant made off with a 22ct engagement ring bought in 1926 and jewellery worth a total of £4,000.

None of it has been recovered.

The previous day he burgled a house in nearby St Margaret’s Road and took a laptop and jewellery valued at £5,000. The items are still missing.

Durrant admitted three burglaries and asked for 10 others and two attempted burglaries to be taken into consideration.

Twelve of the burglaries were within a four-week period between May and June while another was in August the previous year.

His previous convictions, including 76 ‘acquisitive’ offences, date back to 1984. He was jailed for eight years in the mid-1990s for an aggravated burglary involving a meat cleaver and was imprisoned for 45 months in October 2008 for another burglary.

He was released in July 2010.

Richard Lister, defending, said Durrant began abusing drugs aged 10. He said: “He is genuinely appalled to read the victims’ impact statements.

“He loathes the person he becomes when he takes drugs.”

Recorder Richard Gimblett jailed him for four years and eight months. He said: “In many cases what you end up doing is effectively stealing people’s memories.”