DAME Vera Lynn spoke of her distress today after her Sussex home was burgled for the third time.

The 82-year-old Forces sweetheart, who rose to fame with her Forties wartime songs, was not at home when the thieves broke in.

They smashed a patio door at the rear of her two-storey chalet-style house in Ditchling, north of Brighton, triggering alarms.

The burglars fled with a painting, a brass inlaid Regency walnut sofa table, a gold Ormulu French clock and a Canterbury mahogany magazine rack.

The painting, a landscape showing cows in a river, is by Ernest Wallbourn. The haul is said to be worth several thousa

A distressed Dame Vera, whose husband died last year, said: "All the antiques were of sentimental value, bought over many years while I was working very hard and saving up during and after the war.

"The things they stole were objects I started collecting around 1941."

She said the raid had dismayed her, adding: "I don't understand how people can smash their way into somebody's house.

"It's one of the worst things people can do."

Dame Vera said she had photographs of the antiques and hoped the items would be recovered.

Her daughter,

Virginia Jones, said: "I think the same

comment would be applied to anyone who burgled a person of that age.

"They are disgusting, a parasite living off other people's hard work."

Mrs Jones added: "My mother has bounced back from this but burglars just don't give a stuff about old widowed ladies. They have no conscience."

Her husband Tom said: "I put these

people in the same

category as rapists and murderers, because they violate the individual."

One of Dame Vera's neighbours, John Young, said: "We have had a note from the police asking if we heard or saw anyhing.

"We had four burglaries in three years until we got a burglary system.

"We try to look out for each other and do support each other. We check on our neighbours' homes when they are away."

Police arrived min- utes after the break-in. They made a search

and stopped vehicles in the area, but the thieves escaped.

Dame Vera lost two treasured rings, including her late mother's wedding band, when burglars broke in while she and her husband were at home in 1984.

In March last year thieves smashed a window at her home and grabbed a bronze sculpture of Lady Godiva, worth £2,000 and given to her more than 20 years earlier as a thank-you for her charity work.

A tatty blue transit-type van was seen in the area at the time of the raid. Det Con Richard Bebb asked anyone with information to call him at Haywards Heath police station on 0845 6070 999.

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