A MAN returned to burgle a house where he had been a guest earlier, knowing the occupier was away from home at the time, a court was told.

Josh Slee was among friends drinking at the property in Murton, County Durham, on January 23.

Durham Crown Court heard they moved on to another friend’s home, in nearby Seaham, to continue drinking into the early hours the following morning.

Penny Bottomley, prosecuting, said at one stage Slee left, with another man, but returned later, and, as with some other guests, stayed over until later in the morning.

Miss Bottomley said later in the morning the woman living at the house in Murton, who also stayed over at the property in Seaham, received a call to say it appeared her home, in Gray Avenue, had been broken into, apparently via a boarded up kitchen window.

She went home and discovered the boarding had been removed, while a jar containing a coin collection of about £205 and a television set from the living room were missing.

Miss Bottomley said blood stains were found on door handles in the kitchen.

Forensic tests revealed the blood belonged to Slee, who made the excuse that he had been involved in a fight at the house earlier that night and some of his spilt blood must have found its way onto the kitchen door handles.

But the householder told police no-one was involved in a fight at the house.

Twenty-one-year-old Slee, of Hylton Terrace, Sunderland, denied burglary, but on the day his trial was due to start, at the court, in September, he changed his plea to ‘guilty’.

He was bailed, on condition he did not enter Murton, prior to today’s (Friday November 6) sentencing hearing.

The court heard Slee has only limited convictions on his record, but it includes a burglary at a hospital when he tried to force a vending machine.

Yvonne Taylor, for Slee, said he has had a long-standing addiction to drink and drugs, and was heavily under the influence of both at the time of the offence.

But she said this has acted as a, “wake up call”, as Slee now rarely drinks and takes no form of drugs, while he has been, “brought to book” by his own family.

Jailing him for 16 months, Judge Christopher Prince said there was, “some degree of planning”, while the offence also represented a “breach of trust”, on the householder who had allowed him into her home earlier.