By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 18:33, Saturday, 08 December 2012

A 64-year-old man who woke up to strange noises in his house in the middle of the night got out of bed to investigate – and found a burglar coming up the stairs towards him.

Connor Dalgleish

The man managed to chase 19-year-old Connor Dalgliesh out of his house.

But within minutes the drunken teenager was being confronted by another man – this time a 63-year-old – who found him trying to break into his house nearby.

At Carlisle Crown Court, Dalgliesh, of Gloucester Road, Carlisle, was sent to prison for three years and four months after pleading guilty to burgling one house and attempting to burgle the other. The judge told him he had turned his victims’ lives upside down, because they no longer felt safe in their own homes.

Prosecutor Alan Lovett told the court both incidents happened in the Buchanan Road area of Upperby.

Dalgliesh – who had 24 previous convictions – had already been stopped by police, who told him to go home because he was drunk on the street.

Soon after midnight he got into the first house, but in his drunken state made so much noise he woke up the occupant, who was asleep alone upstairs because his wife was in hospital.

The man found him three-quarters of the way up the stairs, but chased him back down and out of the house through the kitchen, Mr Lovett said.

“The burglar was clearly drunk because he was stumbling about and not running in a straight line,” he said.

A few minutes later Dalgliesh struck at the other house, but was chased away before he could get inside.

He was found soon afterwards – by the same police who had spoken to him earlier – hiding behind a fence.

In mitigation, defence barrister Elizabeth Muir said Dalgliesh had had a difficult upbringing, made worse when his stepfather hanged himself while on remand in Durham prison earlier this year.

“He has battled issues with both drugs and alcohol for a long time,” she said. “He is a very different person when he is sober to the one he is when he has been drinking or taking drugs.

“But he is young enough to be able to turn his life around when he is finally released from custody.”

First published at 18:31, Saturday, 08 December 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk