Burglar walked into bedroom where terrified couple were sleeping

Aaron Vaughan was wearing a head torch when he disturbed the man and woman in their Huddersfield home, Leeds Crown Court was told today.

The 21-year-old, who has 10 previous convictions including similar offences, had been on bail at the time for an attempted break-in at another property in September 2018.

Prosecutor Martin Robertshaw said that around 5am on November 30, 2018, Vaughan had entered the property on Gledholt Road through a kitchen window.

After taking computer games, a tablet, rucksack and headphones, he wandered into the bedroom wearing the light on his head.

The woman screamed and her husband then jumped out of bed and chased him down the stairs where Vaughan managed to escape through a set of French windows.

The items stolen amounted to nearly £1,500 and were never recovered.

However, DNA found on the head torch dropped in the chase matched Vaughan's profile.

Arrested some months later, he made no comment during a police interview.

Appearing in court from custody and via videolink, he admitted burglary.

He also admitted a charge of attempted burglary of a property in Huddersfield, on September 13, 2018.

The 83-year-old occupier was alerted to someone trying the front door to his flat on Bath Street, and Vaughan was later identified as the culprit.

More recently, Vaughan, of Arncliffe Road, Wakefield, was arrested in Pontefract.

When a police patrol tried to stop him in the street on Januray 18 this year, he ran off and was chased by officers on foot along Milton Drive.

He was seen holding a large kitchen knife that he dumped in a garden, before being caught trying to hide in a hedge in Redland Crescent.

Vaughan admitted a charge of possessing bladed article and also cannabis, after a small amount of the drug was found him.

He told police he often carried a weapon for self defence.

Mitigating, Satpal Roth-Sharma said Vaughan had grown up in care, had spent most of his adult life homeless, and committed the offences to pay for his £50-a-day cannabis habit.

She said: "He has found no other way to satisfy his addiction other than to commit crimes of this nature.

"At some point he has realised it simply has to stop."

Jailing him for 32 months, Mushtaq Khokhar said: "You are no stranger to offending of this type.

"Burglary offences are serious. I can appreciate the difficulties you have had in your life but unless you want to change your life, it will never change.

"If you continue down this path you have chosen the sentences will get longer and longer."