The brave voices of a mother and son came back from the grave today...to condemn a thug burglar.

Courageous 90-year-old Florence Hill had stood up to two men who raided her home in Broadstairs two-and-a-half years ago.

Her son Graham Capewell remembered: “Through all the injury and upset, mum said that she would like to kill them...which shows how angry she was.”

Now a judge has heard that since the break-in both have died – although their deaths were not the result of the burglary.

But their courage has resulted in them receiving belated justice – even if they couldn’t live long enough to see it... as serial thief Dean Pitcher was jailed for 13 years.

The jury at Canterbury Crown Court took barely an hour to find him guilty of the Fireworks’ Night robbery in 2013.

Prosecutor Simon Taylor told how Mrs Hill was at home watching TV in her lounge at 7.45pm.

“Mrs Hill was an elderly female who was visually impaired, partially deaf and suffered from angina and arthritis.

“She walked only with the aid of a Zimmer frame and lived alone.”

The prosecutor told one of the burglars burst in through a lounge door, shone a torch into her face and told her to “shut up”.

The second raider then ransacked her home – but the brave pensioner followed the two using her frame – until one of them grabbed it and threw it at her, injuring her leg.

“One of the men took hold of Mrs Hill with both hands gripping her chest area and threw her onto the kitchen door and knocking her to the floor.”

Mr Taylor said that despite that Mrs Hill managed to reach her panic button, which alerted Age Concern and then onto her son.

He arrived five minutes later to find his mother “very distressed” and on the floor – by then the thieves had fled with a handbag, two wallets with £80 in cash and credit cards, a blue cash box and a jewellery.

Mr Taylor said Pitcher, 28 , was caught after scientists found his DNA on a cigarette butt in the rear garden, where some of the stolen property had been thrown.

Despite the deaths of Mrs Hill and her son, the Crown Prosecution Service went ahead with the prosecution.

And after the conviction, Mr Capewell’s words were read to the jury.

“This was as unpleasant a case of robbery as you could ever come across" - Recorder Jonathan Higgs QC

He said: “My mum is an elderly vulnerable woman who had been targeted by these people for that reason alone.

“I am angry and upset that they have picked on her. I find it quite distressing to speak about it because I can’t believe someone would be capable of doing such an horrific thing.

“The burglars clearly have no morals whatsoever.”

Pitcher, who now lives in Purfleet, Essex, was finally arrested in January 2014 but the second man has never been traced.

The judge, Recorder Jonathan Higgs QC told him: “This was as unpleasant a case of robbery as you could ever come across.

“You and somebody else targeted this bungalow because you knew the occupant would be elderly and therefore helpless.

“You stole everything you could and then quite gratuitously assaulted that elderly lady.”