Burglar flees scene the hard way

A burglar’s unusual method of leaving the scene of the crime left him with fractures to his legs and spine after he fell four storeys from an inner-city Wellington apartment building.

Stafford Iraia Kinghazel, 27, previously from Christchurch, had gone into an Aitken St apartment building on Christmas Day last year looking for somewhere to spend the night.

He found an empty fifth-floor apartment and forced his way in.

He decided to leave through a window, trying to climb his way down the building by bracing his arms and legs against the wall.

He made it down one floor before falling to the footpath, where he was found by a member of the public.

He pleaded guilty to burglary, possession of two grams of cannabis and a methamphetamine pipe – found when police searched him at hospital – and two breaches of prison release conditions.

He had been on release conditions after a jail term for a previous burglary in 2013.

Wellington District Court judge Peter Hobbs jailed him for 14 months and ordered him to pay $250 for a glass window he broke leaving the apartment.

He said Kinghazel had a tragic background, but showed signs of wanting rehabilitation.

But, given he had 10 previous convictions for burglary and 12 for breaching prison release conditions, he was not eligible for home detention. He did not have an address to go to either.