A MAN with convictions for burglary going back to when he was 12 broke into a Coventry almshouse at night to steal jewellery from the bedside of a sleeping pensioner.
But Anthony Williams was caught after he was recognised on a recording from a CCTV camera in the courtyard of the Bonds Hospital almshouses in Hill Street, Coventry.
Williams (48) of Brook Close, Hillfields, Coventry, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the burglary.
Prosecutor Richard Franck said an 80-year-old retired lady, who had moved into an almshouse because of poor health, went to bed at 8pm on April 3, having locked the door and windows.
When she woke at 4.30am, she found her jewellery, which she had left on her dressing table, was missing and her bedroom window was open.
In a statement, the pensioner said she had moved into the almshouses because of her health, and had felt safe there ‘until last night.’
The break-in had left her feeling extremely upset, and she said she was devastated that family jewellery which had been handed down to her, and which she had intended to hand down, had been stolen.
A CCTV camera in the courtyard of Bonds Hospital had captured Williams walking towards her accommodation at shortly after 10.30pm.
When the police checked the footage, they recognised him – but after his arrest he denied being responsible.
Mr Franck added that Williams had a number of previous convictions, including 20 domestic burglaries, but none since 2007 until last year when he was convicted of handling, fraud and theft.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano observed that Williams had clearly turned his life round and put his past behind him until last year, and asked: “What happened then?”
David Murray, defending, said that events which had led to him suffering a traumatic childhood, during which he began offending at the age of 12, had resurfaced.
“Things began to unravel because of those matters from when he was a child, and he went back onto class A drugs.”
Jailing Williams, Judge de Bertodano told him: “Just over a month ago you broke into a flat in Bonds Hospital where an 80-year-old was asleep.
“You forced her window and went into her bedroom and stole her jewellery while she slept.
“She had moved into that accommodation so she would feel safe, and you have threatened that because she no longer feels safe there.
“You started burgling houses when you were 12 years old, but in 2007 you managed to turn your back on that sort of life, and for ten years you stayed out of any sort of trouble.
“You had had a really terrible childhood and experiences none of us can imagine what it is like to go through, and [because of events last year], you have relapsed.”
