The sentencing of killer Maggie Henderson for the murder of pensioner of Eddie Girvan does not make for easy reading.
The details of the antiques dealer's death, stabbed and tied to a chair, gagged to stop his screams, his body only discovered when police called to enquire about an accident involving his car, stolen by Henderson who drove from Greenisland to Belfast after the murder having first injected herself with heroin.
The 31-year-old had been high on a cocktail of heroin and crystal meth when she stabbed Mr Girvan - who she said had been paying her for sex - in the chest with a cake knife.
It is a sordid and sorry tale, involving a lonely old man and a very troubled young woman, who had prior to this point lived a life filled with a abuse and trauma.
Henderson pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter of the retired plumber on the grounds of "diminished responsibility''.
Her drug habit was clearly a factor, not just in the brutal murder but also in the her lifestyle choices and desperate decent into prostitution and violence.
However, with time served in remand she has less than a year and a half left to serve for the January 2016, murder.
Sit in any court in Northern Ireland any day of the week and you will hear stories of how alcohol or drug addiction have led ordinary people to behave in a criminal and at times ruthlessly violent way.
While addiction explains why people commit criminal acts they would never otherwise consider, it does not excuse them.
Drug addiction is rife in Northern Ireland, most addicts harm only themselves or their families desperately try to support them, however when people commit horrendous, violent crimes, the most serious to take the life of another person then that mitigation and sympathy should have limits.
Of course violent addicts need treatment but the public also need protection from them.
