Mum left terrified by armed burglar

Daniel Wright, 38, has been jailed for three years after a court heard the woman has been left shaken and fearful for her family’s safety following the break in at her home in St Patrick’s Road, St Annes.

Judge Robert Altham, sentencing, said: “The circumstances of this burglary are indicative of why burglary is regarded as being so serious.”

At around 4.45am on September 3 the woman woke to the sound of someone in her house.

She leaned over the bannister to see a downstairs light she had switched off was now switched on.

Wright, of Glen Eldon Road, St Annes, was in the kitchen but the adjoining door was locked and the woman phoned the police.

Judge Altham said: “Knowing that someone with hostile intent was trying to get into the house while her two young children were in their bedrooms must have been absolutely terrifying.”

Officers arrived at the house and discovered Wright trying to escape through a dog flap at the side of the house. He was carrying a knife and a set of keys, the court heard.

Wright was arrested and immediately admitted the burglary.

Judge Altham said: “The problem appears to be that whenever you are intoxicated you burgle people’s homes.”

Since the break in the woman has had £1,200 of work carried out to increase her home security.

The judge said: “This was not merely an attack on her property - it was an attack on her sense of security, the safety of her home and her entire way of life.

“She is now frightened and feels unsafe in her own home. She is a single parent who works and has had to spend money she can not really afford on security lighting and having the door bricked up.

“She is so unsettled she wants to move. Imagine what you have done to her and her family - you have put her in that frame of mind.”

Wright has convictions for burglary dating back to the early 1990s. In addition to the three year jail term, the judge ordered Wright to pay a victim surcharge and £900 court costs.