Teen burgled to buy sleeping pills

5:58pm Wednesday 10th October 2007

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A TEENAGER burgled the home of a neighbour to make money to buy sleeping pills because he was unable to cope with caring for his ill mother, a court heard.

Kevin Curry planned to sell the jewellery, electrical goods and DVDs he stole from Stacey Johnson's home in South Bank, near Middlesbrough, to pay for the tablets.

But the 19-year-old was spotted leaving the scene after Miss Johnson was woken from her sleep, and he was arrested soon after at his sister's home nearby - with some of his haul.

Prosecutor Shaun Dryden told Teesside Crown Court that police also searched a caravan Curry had recently bought, and found more of the stolen property inside.

On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to the April 9 burglary and was locked up for a year by Recorder Neil Davey QC, who told him: "The burglary of an occupied house in the early hours of the morning is a very serious crime.

"Innocent householders go to bed thinking their property and belongings are safe, but that is an illusion when people like you are about.

"This sort of crime has a terrible impact upon victims and as succeeding nights go by, they wonder if the intruder will return to strike again.

"It takes everyone time to get over it - if, in fact, they do. Some people never get over it, to the extent that they have to move house as a result of the nocturnal activities of people like you."

The judge added: "This was a cynical and targeted expedition, designed to raise funds to buy tablets for yourself - targeted against a victim you knew, at a house you knew, containing property you knew about as you had been before."

Curry, now of Shinwell Crescent, South Bank, had never before committed a burglary, said his barrister Paul Newcombe, but he was desperate because he needed pills but had no money.

Mr Newcombe said: "When his mother found out about his arrest and it all came out at home, it appears she felt guilty about putting him in the position where he felt he had to numb himself through medication, and he felt bad for the crime he had committed and the depths he had plumbed."