‘Despicable’ burglar left trail of DNA
A ‘DESPICABLE’ burglar has been caught after dropping clues at several different crime scenes – including leaving his DNA on a woman’s trousers when he bit her.
Detectives were able to bring Simon McWilliams, 38, to justice because he also left fingerprints, blood, his balaclava with a skull design on it and a screwdriver at homes during break-ins.
McWilliams, of no fixed address but from Openshaw, was jailed for five after admitting 12 counts of house burglary, four counts of car theft, two assaults and one charge of handling stolen goods.
His crime spree took place between July and November 2017 when he smashed his way into properties through windows and patio doors.
Greater Manchester Police were able to link the raids to McWilliams because of the clues he left behind and the similar manner of each burglary.
Following one break-in at a house in Bury in August 2017, police found a balaclava featuring a skull motif which was found to have traces of McWilliams’ DNA.
A householder also tried to stop McWilliams after another burglary in Macclesfield a month later in which he had stuffed valuables into a pillowcase.
The burglar hit the woman householder a number of times and even bit her on her leg, police said.
She had stepped in to save her son who McWilliams punched several times when he tried to collar the burglar. The desperate criminal also tried to gouge the son’s eye as he struggled to escape. Forensic analysis found McWilliams’ DNA on the householder’s trousers into which he had sunk his teeth. The clueless burglar had also left his screwdriver, which had his fingerprints on the handle, in a bedroom.
During another burglary in Didsbury in September 2017, McWilliams appeared to cut himself after smashing his way through rear patio doors.
Police caught up with McWilliams in January 2018 following another crime when an Audi was stolen from a driveway in Stockport.
Under the weight of the evidence, McWilliams admitted the crimes as well as six other burglaries when he was taken on a ‘drive around’ by police.
After McWilliams was jailed at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, Detective Constable Matt Tarr, of GMP’s Stockport burglary team, said: “McWilliams is by no means a sophisticated criminal but the pain and distress he has caused to all these innocent people is despicable.”