IN our crime-ridden age, we become hardened to the daily reports of assaults and robberies.

But some offences spark outrage and disbelief in equal measure.

Five-year-old Lucy Branton is severely disabled by cerebral palsy and epilepsy. She can hardly move and struggles to communicate.

One evening, shortly after rush hour, a teenage boy shoved Lucy's mother into a hedge and pushed her wheelchair into a busy road, so it overturned.

He walked off with two mates, laughing.

It was a truly wicked act, and prompts only one question: how low can anyone stoop?

Updated: 11:21 Wednesday, February 02, 2005