Leeds house burglar who left woman '˜traumatised' is jailed

Leeds Crown Court heard Lee Thompson broke in to the house on Station Crescent at Armley through an upstairs window while the occupants were asleep.

He climbed to the window using ladders he stole from a neighbour’s shed on Station Crescent.

Prosecutor, Andrew Horton said Thompson spent time in the house, ate food from the oven and had a cigarette before he was disturbed during the burglary in the early hours of June 3.

The court heard the woman was woken and spotted Thompson walking up the stairs.

Mr Horton said: “She screamed and her husband came out of the bedroom and chased the defendant out of the house. The defendant was carrying a TV from the house and he dropped it.”

The court heard car keys, a laptop computer and cash were stolen.

Mr Horton said Thompson was arrested on Armley Town Street at around 10am that morning.

Reading a statement from the woman, Mr Horton said: “The whole incident has made me feel traumatised. The thought this man had been in my house and stood so close to me makes me feel scared.”

Thompson had used a shovel to smash the glass on a kitchen door at a house on Station Way in Armley at 5.30am on the same morning.

Thompson had also broken into the shed at that property before stealing items including a deep fat fryer.

He went on to use a crow bar to force open the lock on a shed of one house on Station Crescent and used ladders he found there to climb to the upstairs window of the neighbouring house.

Thompson, of no fixed abode, has 34 previous convictions for 81 offences, including 12 house burglaries and a robbery at knife point in a victim’s home.

Mitigating, Michael Miller said: “He has a longstanding difficulty with heroin and cocaine.”

Thompson admitted burglary, attempted burglary and seven charges of shoplifting.

Jailing Thompson, judge Robin Mairs told him: “You spent a considerable amount of time in that house.

“Noise disturbed the female occupant. She came down the stairs believing it to be her husband, but was confronted by you.

“This must have been an utterly terrifying incident for this unfortunate woman to find someone else in her house.

“You are clearly an offender who is not frightened of confrontation.”