Burglars raided OAP’s home
COUPLE JAILED AFTER BREAK-IN WHILE PENSIONER SLEPT UPSTAIRS
A couple who raided a pensioner’s home while she was asleep upstairs has been put behind bars.
John Colefax and Julia Walmsley caused more than £1,000 of damage when they smashed their way into the 76-year-old’s house in Houghton, through a patio door in June.
Newcastle Crown court heard the pensioner had been disturbed by an early morning noise and was met by a police officer on her stairs.
The constable advised the victim to go back upstairs, meaning she had no confrontation with the raiders.
Colefax and Walmsley had been caught red handed inside the house after a neighbour saw them breaking in and reported them.
The pair initially managed to get away, after Colefax threw a hoover he was about to take at a police woman, but were arrested nearby.
In a victim impact statement, the pensioner said: “I was shaken when I first saw the police officer and didn’t know what was going on.
“I got upset, I started to shake. I feel angry and frightened at the thought of this.”
Colefax, 42, of Central Buildings, Shiney Row, Houghton, and Walmsley, 27, of Wright Terrace, Shiney Row, Houghton, both admitted burglary.
Mr recorder William Lowe QC jailed Colefax, who has a long ciminal record, which includes convictions for previous house raids, for two years and five months.
The judge jailed Walmsley, who is not as heavily convicted, but has one previous conviction for burglary, for 15 months. Jamie Adams, defending, said Colefax has a long-standing drug problem, and “desperately wants to change his lifestyle”.
John Wilklinson, defending Walmsley, said the mum led a “blameless life” until the age of 22, when her mother died and she “turned to drugs”.