A TERRIFIED Newcastle woman and her niece heard an intruder “banging about” downstairs of their home in the early hours of the morning, a court has heard.
A 23 year-old university student from Newcastle admitted causing around £5,000 of damage to the Tullybrannigan Road home after he broke in on July 25 last year.
At Downpatrick Court on Thursday, Aaryn Smyth, of Golf Links Road, admitted criminal damage and burglary with intent to cause unlawful damage.
He was sentenced to 12 months’ probation and 100 hours of community service. Smyth was also ordered to pay the woman £465 in compensation to cover the difference she had to pay herself from an insurance pay-out.
The court heard that the 65-year-old householder phoned the police at around 7am to report that she had wakened to hear the sound someone “banging about the kitchen”.
A prosecutor said that the woman remained on the phone with the call handler for about 20 minutes until help arrived and was “increasingly terrified that the intruder would come upstairs”.
He said that when police arrived, they found Smyth standing in the kitchen, topless and “highly intoxicated”.
Officers discovered he broke three doors, used a breeze block to damage a toilet, broke two windows and ripped out some kitchen appliances.
Defence solicitor John Keown said the incident was “highly unusual” and described Smyth as “the most unlikely defendant to appear in court on any charge”.
He said Smyth had been drinking in a bar earlier that night and found it hard to believe that he caused the damage to the women’s house.
The solicitor offered the court two character references for Smyth, including one from a former teacher.
He said Smyth was thought to have “a bright future ahead” and was on course to achieve a first class degree.
Mr Keown spoke of how remorseful his client was, how he had written two letters to the women and offered to meet them to apologise face to face.
He added: “He can’t really say what happened to him that night. Officers even said that he looked confused to be in the kitchen and was trying to cook a pizza in a fridge freezer.
“He was thought to be in the house for about four hours and thought he was in his own home. There is a disbelief that he is involved in this kind of incident. It’s incomprehensible.”
District Judge Amanda Brady referred to the likely “everlasting harm” the incident would have on the two women and warned Smyth not to come before her again.