A TEENAGER who stole from a woman who had given her home was jailed for two-and-a-half year for what a judge called an appalling crime.

Shaun Metcalfe took the victim's bank card while she was asleep and withdrew money from her account.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he had not been staying at the house in Stockton, but sneaked in and stole a purse.

The following day, he frogmarched a man to his home to get his cashpoint card, while threatening to stab him and hit him with a house brick.

Metcalfe was said to have been born addicted to drugs, lived much of his life in care before being looked after by his grandmother, but when she died he was put in supervised accommodation until his 18th birthday last October.

The man he tried to rob had the presence of mind to pick up an old bank card that had been cancelled, so despite trying four different cashpoint machines, Metcalfe was unable to get any money.

The incident lasted 90 minutes, and the victim said in a statement that he was "shaken up, scared and upset" by the ordeal on February 22, and feared he would be assaulted.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, told Judge Sean Morris: "There has been no input into Shaun Metcalfe's thinking, frame of mind, behaviour that any of the rest of normal society would recognise as good parenting.

"A young man largely left to his own devices, he started random drug-taking at a very young age.

"When a man of this age, for he is only just an adult, has grown up in that way, the court should have some understanding of how he has arrived where he is."

Metcalfe, of Yarm Road, Stockton, admitted charges of burglary, theft and attempted robbery.

Judge Morris told him: "It was an unpleasant breach of trust burglary where a woman who gave you a home was treated very badly by you.

"Sneaking into somebody's house who has sought to give you shelter is appalling.

"It is right to say you have had an appalling upbringing that's not your fault.

However lots of people in this world had terrible upbringings, and the vast majority do not turn to crime. Crime is a lifestyle choice. You have chosen it and you don't have to. You now have a very serious record."

Metcalfe has 25 other crimes to his name, including four burglaries.