There will be few people who are not horrified and disgusted at the actions of the man who so violently and callously robbed a 75-year-old woman of her engagement ring as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from a stroke.

The perpetrator has quite rightly been jailed for five years but the victim, who the court was told had suffered with further ill-health since her terrifying ordeal, may live with the crime for much longer than that.

As Judge Robert Bartfield pointed out when he jailed Robert Ziga, hospitals are places where people should feel safe and secure and not at the mercy of such criminal acts.

The shocking incident must raise questions about how secure our hospitals really are, especially after the court heard that Ziga had been wandering around Bradford Royal Infirmary for up to an hour and a half before he pounced.

Hospitals, by their very nature, are a temporary home to people who can be very vulnerable. Seriously-ill patients do not need the extra stress of worrying whether they are going to fall victim to crime as they lie in their sick beds.

This case should send a message to all hospitals and medical centres that security is paramount. Bradford Royal Infirmary does say that rigorous security measures are in place already and that this is an isolated incident, and it is thanks to the CCTV installed in the hospital buildings that the criminal was brought to justice.

But one incident of this type is too many, and it would not be inappropriate for hospital bosses to review all security measures to ensure such an incident never happens again in Bradford.