A JUDGE has praised a father who got his son off heroin by locking him in his house for a week.

Reedy McCall, 70, called police after he walked in on his son about to inject himself at the family home in Campbell Close, Mildenhall.

Mr McCall then kept his son, Andre McCall, inside his house for a week to help him go ‘cold turkey’ to get off drugs.

District Judge David Cooper praised Mr McCall’s actions at Bury St Edmunds Magistrates’ Court this week saying: “I could shake his father’s hand.

“What a splendid man.

“He must have been desperate.”

Andre McCall, 34, admitted possession of a Class A drug at the hearing on Tuesday. .

The court heard Mr McCall went into his son’s room at 5.30am on July 19 and saw the him with his trousers around his ankles, about to inject himself with a syringe.

Mr McCall snatched the needle then called police and handed officers the syringe when they arrived and arrested his son.

Mr McCall, speaking after the hearing, said he was determined to save his son.

“I never gave up,” he said. “He’s well worth saving.”

“I really love Andre and I had to try to be strong for him.”

Mr McCall said he had been aware of his son’s drug problem and had been forced to hide money and his diabetic syringes from his son in the house.

The night he discovered his son about to inject himself, he vowed to fight to help his son get his life straight.

“I almost cried,” he said. “You feel broken up inside like you, as a parent, did something wrong.

“To see your child like that, to open his bedroom door and he’s laid out with a needle in his arm is not a happy sight.”

But having helped his son rid himself of his drugs habit, Mr McCall said he was proud of Andre’s progress.

“I am proud of him,” he said. “It’s been a long struggle but he’s back on the right track.”

McCall was ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work.