Two burglars are behind bars after they each bungled separate attempts to flee security staff taking them into custody.

The most dramatic attempt to escape was made by 27-year-old David Scott Pattinson, who scaled a 15-ft high security screen at Carlisle's Rickergate Magistrates' Court.

He did it because he wanted a farewell cuddle from his girlfriend.

Just 24 hours earlier, his partner-in-crime Joseph Graham, 38, had made his failed attempt to escape, as security staff led him in handcuffs towards a prison-van.

He too was stopped – but not before he had clambered desperately over his lawyer's car, denting and scratching the paintwork with his handcuffs.

At the city's crown court yesterday, both men were resigned to their fate as they sat securely behind the dock's high glass screen awaiting their fate.

Judge Peter Davies heard that Pattinson and Graham had burgled a storage area of Peter Tyson's electrical retailer in Shaddongate, Carlisle, on August 20.

A police officer called to the premises spotted Pattinson at the scene but he ran off, dropping the goods he had been trying to steal - said to be speakers of some kind. Police caught up with him a month later.

In that time, he had committed several thefts, on one occasion taking a charity collection tin for a hospice charity.

When he was put before magistrates he admitted the thefts and the break-in - but he became furious when told he would be was about to be remanded in custody.

He produced a pencil and threatened to stab the security staff who were guarding him in court and then scaled the glass dock as court staff looked on in horror, helpless to stop him.

"He got over the dock into the main courtroom," said prosecutor Richard Haworth.

In doing so he injured a woman custody officer by kicking out. She had to take a month off work as a result, the court heard.

Pattinson was then swiftly cornered and detained after his defence lawyer Nick Kennon intervened, calming the defendant and urging court staff to let him say farewell to his girlfriend.

This done, Pattinson allowed security staff to take him to Durham Prison.

Pattinson, formerly of Spencer Street, Carlisle, later penned the prison governor a letter, asking them not to contact police. "I had a moment of madness," he wrote. "I climbed over the dock and cuddled and kissed my girlfriend."

Though his affection for his partner was clearly genuine, the defendant's letter to the prison governor contained untruths, said Mr Haworth.

In the letter, the defendant falsely claimed police that arrested him at his daughter's funeral. But the prosecutor told the court: “His daughter hadn't died."

"It really was a cock and bull story which he sought to put before the prison governor to try and mitigate what he had done."

Pattinson admitted three thefts, a burglary, escaping from custody, assault causing actual bodily harm, property damage and a perverting the course of justice charge.

Judge Davies heard that the defendant's criminal record included 95 previous offences, including two custody escapes. Jailing him for 27 months, the judge said Pattinson had told dreadful lies.

“You are a prevalent and persistent offender who is continuously and persistently addicted to drugs," added the judge.

The court was then told about Graham's own doomed attempt to escape the day before Pattinson, when he ran off across the Carlisle magistrates' court car park. As he ran, he leaped over a car belonging to his defence lawyer Mark Shepherd.

It was left dented and scratched.

Graham, of Welsh Road, Harraby, later admitted escaping from lawful custody and damaging the car; he also admitted burgling a city electrical store and four thefts from Carlisle shops.

He was said to have turned to drugs after losing his job as a steel erector, and accepted making his escape bid out of "sheer panic and stupidity".

"Foolhardy, I think you will agree, is rather the understatement of the year," Judge Peter Davies told Graham, as he jailed him for a year.

"The next time you see Mr Shepherd...please take your time to apologise."