A TEENAGER stole money from a severely disabled man who had been bundled out of his wheelchair on the doorstep of his home.

As he lay beneath it, pleading for help, 18-year-old Kyle Christensen came along and stole £45 from him, said prosecutor David Elias.

Recorder Milwyn Jarman, QC, said 44-year-old Lee Wilkins, who suffers from spina bifida, has become "virtually a hermit" since the incident.

Christensen, of Wye Crescent, Bettws, Newport, was sentenced to six months in a young offenders' institution after being found guilty at an earlier hearing of a charge of theft.

Recorder Jarman told him: "The emotional scars will stay with Mr Wilkins for a very long time."

Mr Elias said shortly after midnight on April 15 Mr Wilkins was returning to his home in Monnow Way, Bettws, when at his doorstep somebody pushed over his wheelchair and ran off, leaving him trapped underneath.

The defendant arrived on the scene and took £45 as Mr Wilkins lay helpless.

Recorder Jarman said: "You took advantage of him and you took his wallet. You even tried to cover up your actions by pretending to help him.

"This incident was on his own doorstep. He was very vulnerable and the effect has been devastating."

Recorder Jarman said that in a witness impact statement Mr Wilkins said he had become virtually a hermit.

He no longer has the confidence to leave home and believes he could be subjected to a repeat attack. He has no social life and is now housebound.

Although, he said, Christensen took no part in pushing him over, he had showed no remorse whatsoever.

Mr Wilkins, he said, had to give evidence by video link. "We could see that he was terrified and sobbed his way through his evidence.

"In my judgment this offence is so serious only custody will do."