Anger at Maddie con sentence

Debbie Clifton, formerly of Boswell Road, Cannock, was jailed for 90 days yesterday after admitting the con on June 2 this year. She stole £2.70 from an 83-year-old woman who thought she was giving to the fund set up to find the missing girl.

Cannock North councillor Frank Allen, who represents the Johnson Road area where the incident happened, said: "I think the sentence should have been longer because of the aggravating factors and the sensitivity of the case but I know the magistrates yesterday would have been limited in what they could do.

"My first reaction to this case was a sense of outrage. To my mind the sentence given doesn't fit the crime."

Clifton appeared at Cannock Magistrates Court yesterday where JPs were told she took the cash to pay off a £10 drug debt.

Mr John Peel, prosecuting, said Clifton had called at "numerous" other homes in Johnson Road but was unsuccessful.

While on police bail she also stole a garden ornament worth £4 and smashed a window at the Jolly Collier pub in Cannock.

Defending Clifton, Mrs Jacqueline Coley-Fisher, said the addict had been segregated while on remand in prison at her own request. She said: "She has already paid the price for what she has done from her friends and family and particularly while in custody with very real and very frightening threats being made to her."

l Ex-patriate Robert Murat, questioned early in the inquiry into Maddie's disappearance, returned to a Portuguese police station today.