THE mother of a heroin addict has told how she felt a sense of relief when her son was arrested after trying to hold up a newsagent's store with a hypodermic syringe.

Matthew Wilkinson, 23, had a promising career as a Rolls Royce apprentice, but this was ruined after he turned to stealing from his parents Robert and Celia to fund his habit.

This week Judge Gavin Barr-Young jailed him for three years. His mother, who was at Bradford Crown Court to see him sentenced, told the Herald she felt certain Matthew would have killed himself.

"When he was taken to Armley (jail) he had a suicide note on him and if he hadn't had been arrested I think he would've committed suicide that day," she said.

Mrs Wilkinson, of Nan Scar, Cowling, said she had no idea her son was a heroin addict until he confessed to her suddenly last Mothers' Day.

"He must've been feeling ill and told me he was an addict," she said. "I thought the bottom had dropped out of my world.

"He was a successful young man and he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. Once that sort of thing gets hold you have to be really, really strong to do something about it."

Mrs Wilkinson told how Matthew pleaded with her to keep him locked up so he could undergo "cold turkey" after several attempts to kick his habit had failed.

"I used to lock him in the house and keep the keys," she said. "But just before we were forced to throw him out he asked me to lock him in the cellar for a month - he was really desperate."

The last straw came when Matthew began stealing property from his parents. They took the bold step of expelling him from the house in a hope that he would seek help.

"We felt really cruel, it was a very hard thing to do," said Mrs Wilkinson. "But if we'd given in to him and given him money it would've gone on and on.

"He told me that he wanted locking up because if he didn't get out of this environment he would go from bad to worse.

"I think there should be somewhere where these people can walk in and get help instead of having to wait months for a place in a re-hab centre."

Bradford Crown Court heard how Matthew went into a newsagent's shop in Newmarket Street, Skipton, and produced a hypodermic syringe when assistant Ruth Heseltine turned away to get some cigarettes.

He told her he would inject her if she did not give him money, but the terrified assistant ran from the shop and called the police. Matthew was arrested nearby.

Judge Barr-Young told him: "I have no doubt your parents were very proud, and rightly so when you, at 16, obtained a Rolls Royce apprenticeship. Everything was very promising. That promise you destroyed by getting into drugs."

He added that it was not too late for Matthew to salvage something from his life, but he had to want to help himself.

And despite what he had done, his mother said: "I would have him back if he is drug free."

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