Youngster left traumatised by burglar’s raid on home
A BURGLAR broke into a family home just months after being released from prison and left a nineyear-old girl feeling ‘traumatised’, a court heard.
Jordan Woodburn, of Church, gained entry into the property in Fence while the victims were asleep and stole various items, including mobile phones, a wallet and the girl’s game console.
Keys for the family’s Volkswagen Jetta were also swiped from a coat pocket in the kitchen and used to steal the car off the driveway.
Prosecutor Peter Barr told Burnley Crown Court that the car was later found crashed and had sustained ‘quite extensive’ damage.
DNA from former milkman Woodburn, 21, was recovered from the driver’s seat but Mr Barr said that ‘someone else was seen driving the vehicle immediately before it was crashed’.
In a victim impact statement, the victims said their nine-year-old daughter had been left ‘particularly traumatised by the incident’.
Ten days later Woodburn was forensically linked to a BMW stolen in another house burglary in Sough.
Mr Barr said the defendant’s fingerprints were found on the rear view mirror and when interviewed about both offences he made ‘no comment’ to all questions.
Woodburn, of Canal Street, pleaded guilty to burglary and handling stolen goods.
The court heard that he has three convictions for 13 offences, including theft from motor vehicles and burglaries, and was on licence at the time of the new offences in
August 2019.
Defence solicitor Gillian Kennaugh said there was ‘no prosecution evidence that anyone else was involved’ in the Fence burglary but Woodburn claims he didn’t act alone in his pre-sentence report.
Woodburn was due to be sentenced last month, however the case had to be adjourned after he failed to turn up at court.
Ms Kennaugh said the defendant had got into a ‘dispute’ with prison officers after being incorrectly told he needed to wear prison clothing and was ‘taken to confinement’.
She said: “He wasn’t making any derogatory comments to the court or court process and apologises for the inconvenience.”
The barrister said Woodburn ‘fell into a pattern of offending’ after moving between addresses when his licence curfew requirement ended in July 2019 and that ‘problems with his finances triggered the offending’.
A pre-sentence report prepared by the probation service recommended Woodburn receiving a ‘community-based penalty’.
Ms Kennaugh said: “There’s an ability to comply with the probation service and desire to address his thinking skills if given the opportunity.
“He has been [on remand] in custody since November and has found it extremely difficult.
“I ask the court to give him a chance and prove he can comply with a community order attached to a suspended sentence.
“The burglary obviously had a profound impact on the nine-year-old girl. The defendant acknowledges that and he is very remorseful.”
Judge Sara Dodd said the girl was left ‘badly affected’ and ‘not wanting to be alone in any room’ and, at the time of writing the victim impact statement, the family were ‘seriously having to consider moving home’.
Judge Dodd sentenced Woodburn to 32 months and disqualified him from driving for 27 months.