Two masked men who broke into the home of a 76-year old woman in the middle of the night looking for drugs have been jailed.

Jay Potter, 22, and Steven Wylie, 25, carried out the "terrifying" raid on Ruth McVey's static caravan in Straiton, Midlothian, on August 7 last year.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court previously heard how the pair smashed a living room window with a glass bottle and threw a plant pot through the patio door before 'ransacking' the pensioner's home.

Fiscal depute Aidan Higgins said the two men were involved in a dispute with others in the Midlothian area over controlled drugs and had received information that drugs, at the centre of the dispute, had been hidden in a bread bin in Mrs McVey's home without her knowledge.

Mr Higgins said: "As the window and door smashed, Mrs McVey ran into the kitchen. The two accused entered her home, wearing hooded tops with the hoods pulled tight across their faces and were shouting".

The fiscal said the men began searching the house and Mrs McVey, seeing a chance to escape, picked up her dog and ran out in her night clothes, shouting on her neighbours for help.

Mrs McVey and a neighbour returned to the home a few minutes later and found the raiders had left and her home was in a state of disorder. The bread bin and her mobile phone had been taken.

The subsequent police investigation was aided by one of the men having dropped his mobile phone outside the house and that led them to Potter and Wylie.

Mrs McVey told the police: "I've always felt safe around here and I don't think I'll ever feel safe again. I'm not sure if I can sleep in my house again".

Mr Higgins said she had lived with her daughter for a time but suffered from panic attacks and was prescribed sleeping tablets.

Mrs McVey has now returned to her home of 12 years but only after iron bars had been fitted over her windows.

Sentencing the pair on Wednesday, Sheriff Michael O'Grady QC described their actions as "appalling".

He said: "In a premeditated attack, you descended on someone's home in the dead of night with faces masked, forced entry in a violent and terrifying fashion and proceeded to ransack the place.

"Whatever you may or may not have known, you must, at some stage, have become aware that the house was occupied by an elderly, and by now terrified, lone woman, and nonetheless you continued with the enterprise".

Potter, of Glasgow , was sentenced to two years and three months in prison and Wylie, of Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, was jailed for three years and two months.

The pair, who were already serving sentences for other crimes, had previously pleaded guilty to breaking into Mrs McVey's home.

The sentences will run consecutively to their present sentences.

Detective sergeant Brian Manchester, of the community investigation unit, said: "This was a terrifying experience for a 76-year-old woman, who's home of over a decade was invaded in the middle of the night.

"Despite this traumatic ordeal, she has shown the utmost bravery throughout this investigation and I hope this sentence is of some comfort to her and her family."