A TEENAGE girl returned to the family home one evening to find a stranger walking down the stairs.

As the 17-year-old entered the front door, the figure made off through the back door, leaving a trail of muddy foot prints.

The shaken teenager ran out and rang her parents, who immediately phoned the emergency services.

Durham Crown Court heard that police arrived at the house, in The Broadway, Chester-le-Street, in less than two minutes.

Within a short time, 48- year-old Terry Dunn was found hiding in bushes outside nearby sewerage works.

Steven Orange, prosecuting, said Dunn unsuccessfully tried to discard a pair of distinctive Norwegian gloves taken from the house.

A mobile phone and charger, plus some cash from a money box, were also taken in the break-in, on September 12 last year.

The footprints, left in all but two of the rooms of the house, were an exact match for Dunn’s footwear at the time of his arrest.

Despite initial denials, Dunn admitted a charge of burglary on the day of his scheduled trial, in December, and was remanded in custody.

Mr Orange said Dunn called at a nearby home in The Broadway the previous day, asking to buy a car, and was seen loitering in the street the following evening.

Nigel Barnes, mitigating, said it was a “spontaneous”

break-in by Dunn, who has a history of such offending, albeit very few in recent years.

The court heard his record includes 57 convictions for 202 offences, including 29 burglaries.

But Mr Barnes said it was his interest in motor vehicles which was behind most of his recent offending.

Judge Christopher Prince told Dunn, of Whickham Street, Sunderland: “The prosecution says you were in The Broadway the evening before to speak to another householder in that area about a car he had for sale.

“I’m not certain you went back with the intention of necessarily entering any property, and you’re being sentenced on the basis it was spontaneous as there were no lights on in the house.”

Dunn was jailed for two years and eight months.