THE family of tragic Angela Wrightson are campaigning for a law to protect vulnerable people from being exploited in their own homes.

Niece Rachel Tressider and her partner TJ McLean are lobbying for "Angie's Law" to give the authorities more clout to remove drug users and other groups from taking over the homes of people like Miss Wrightson, whose home was used as a drug den and a brothel leading up to her death.

She has spoken to Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald about the plan to create the "Vulnerable Persons Act", and along with Mr McLean, is hoping to set up a petition and get nationwide backing for the new law.

Mr McLean told The Northern Echo: "All of us should feel safe in our own home, but Angie's home had been hijacked.

"People had commandeered her property and they just walked in and used it as their own, with the threat of violence if she didn't agree.

"There really seems to be a trend in the UK of this kind of hijacking of people's homes, and noone seems to be able to address it.

"Young people leaving care, disabled people, old people, they are all the ones who are targeted. But it only ever gets highlighted when something terrible like this happens.

"Other than that, they go under the radar.

"Angie wasn't strong enough to keep these people out, and they exploited her vulnerability. She was vulnerable and alone.

"There was no lion there so the hyenas came in and took whatever they wanted.

"It got to the point where they cost her her life."

Yesterday's review into how Miss Wrightson was monitored by agencies in the run-up to her death said: "Angie's family would like to see her situation placed on the same footing as domestic abuse, extending to a visitor.

"They say the numbers of vulnerable adults whose homes are taken over and who suffer regular abuse are unknown, but there is no law making this type of home invasion illegal.

"They want vulnerable adults protected and want authorities to act even if the vulnerable person feels they cannot make a complaint, in the same way as domestic abuse can be pursued by the police without a formal complaint from the victim."

Gill Alexander, chief executive of Hartlepool Borough Council, said a review had been carried out into the numbers of people whose homes were being invaded in this way and that it was a relatively small number, but that every effort was being put in to help those who needed it.

Ann Baxter, chair of the Teesside Safeguarding Adults Board, said people had tried their best to help Miss Wrightson when she needed people removing from her home but sometimes she invited people in, because she wanted their company, and other times they took advantage of her, making it difficult to police.