Burglar was ‘in a drug and alcohol-induced haze’

Sentencing him to two years after reducing the term for his guilty plea, Belfast Recorder Judge David McFarland told 28-year-old Connor Haughey “clearly your addictions dictated and motivated your criminal activity”.

Haughey, whose spare time in jail is spent on creative writting, will serve 12 months, followed by a similar period on licence.

Belfast Crown Court heard that Haughey, of no fixed abode, has been in custody since the break-in last March during which time he was also sentenced for a number of other matters.

Prosecuting barrister Gareth Purvis said Haughey was apprehended by the home-owner’s son and a friend who had been contacted by a neighbour woken from her sleep by a noise, and then watched Haughey break in by a back window, cutting himself in the process.

Defence barrister Michael Boyd said that Haughey, who wants to pursue a life in creative writing, and had penned a letter of apology to his victim, had clearly not planned or targeted the house given his “drug and alcohol-induced haze” at the time.