THERE could hardly have been a starker contrast...

In Middlesbrough yesterday, hundreds of people lined the sun-kissed streets to pay their respects to Corporal Andrew Roberts, who lost his life during a mortar attack serving in Afghanistan.

A heart-breaking letter read out on behalf of his three children, Jessica, six, Kyle, five, and Kayla, three, said: “We love you, Dad, to the moon and back. You were our hero and we miss you greatly – we will never forget you.”

Meanwhile, Middlesbrough woman Natalie Hornby’s reputation was sinking even lower at Newcastle Crown Court.

Hornby is a mother-of-three who co-ordinated a terrible scam to dupe the Help For Heroes charity out of thousands of pounds.

She was rightly jailed in February for the fraud and, yesterday, she and three women from outside the area were the subject of a proceeds of crime hearing.

But because she has no available assets, the court could only order Hornby to pay the token sum of £1.

It sticks in our throats but we appreciate that there is nothing the law can do to reclaim more of the stolen money.

We simply hope that Natalie Hornby finds a way to repay her debt to wounded soldiers when she comes out of prison.

And that she feels thoroughly ashamed of what she did for the rest of her life.