THE car-jacking incidents reported in today’s Telegraph & Argus must have been terrifying for the victims.

By targeting lone women with frightening threats, perhaps the offenders were hoping for a soft target - but got more than they bargained for when both women bravely resisted.

It’s good to see such dangerous offenders being given lengthy sentences to act as a deterrent to others who may be tempted to engage in serious criminality of this nature.

Invasion of people’s houses is bad enough, but it often happens when people are not in their homes. The last thing you expect when you are driving home in your car, which is a private space in its own right, is someone pouncing on you, pointing what appears to be a firearm in your face and trying to yank the car keys out of your hand.

It’s hard to imagine the sheer terror that must have been going through the mind of the young mother who feared her car might be driven away by two criminals with her baby son still sat in the back.

The victim impact statements given to the court by the two women are clear indications of the long-term effects incidents such as these can have on right-thinking members of the public.

Indeed, it’s hardly surprising that one of the victims said her ‘blood ran cold’ whenever she revisited the car park where the crime occurred.

Perhaps the sentences - a combined total of 24 years in jail - will go some way towards righting this wrong, giving the victims renewed confidence in the justice system.