Burglar left DNA at crime scenes
ACONVICTED burglar who targeted expensive homes in Runcorn and Hale while the occupants were asleep was jailed for four years after leaving his incriminating DNA at the scenes.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Jamie Horgan’s victims have been left badly affected by the intrusion and one is now “obsessed” with ensuring her home is secure.
Jailing Horgan, who struck at two houses in Runcorn and Hale, Judge Alan Conrad, QC, said that dwelling house burglaries are always serious but there were particularly so as they had been targeted while the occupiers were at home.
The court heard that his current release date from a sentence imposed last November for another burglary last summer and handling is May next year.
Judge Conrad ordered the four-year term to start from today which means his earliest release date will now by May 2020.
Jamie Baxter, prosecuting, said that Horgan, 22, of no fixed address. who has already been jailed three times for burglaries, broke into a large detached house in Hale Road, Hale, on July 30 last year. One of the two women occupants, Christine Finlay, was awoken about 3am by their dog barking. She saw Horgan jumping into their Nissan Qashqai and driving off and she discovered that he had broken into the house and stolen the house keys, handbag and contents and the vehicle keys. The vehicle was recovered the next day. In the early hours of October 28 the occupant of a house in Lilac Crescent, Runcorn, was awoken by the sound of a door and footsteps downstairs. “He banged on the floor with his feet to hopefully scare away the intruder and called the police,” said Mr Baxter.
He later found that the keys for his Mini Cooper S had been stolen. Police found Horgan’s DNA at the scene of both break-ins, he added.
Scott Phillips, defending, said that Horgan, who has a young child, was homeless and unemployed. He has been making the most of his time in custody, taking courses and is a cleaner on his wing, he added. ●