A babysitter who left a toddler home alone in the middle of the night has been locked up for more than four years.

Sandro Furtado, 20, left the two-year-old locked in a Carlisle house April 8 having agreed to babysit for a friend.

He was arrested but while on police bail Furtado then joined three other men as they forced their way into an occupied city house in June. Possessions were stolen and one man was threatened with a corkscrew during the terrifying incident.

Furtado admitted the ill-treatment of a child and aggravated burglary.

Carlisle Crown Court heard the youngster was "upset and distressed" by the experience but unharmed.

Furtado, who lives in Carlisle, was was jailed for four years and two months at Carlisle Crown court today.

Recorder Michael Murray: "This is a case of a single incident of the abandonment of a child."