In court
Heartless young burglars behind bars

HEARTLESS young thieves who broke into an old woman's bedroom left her so traumatised she was forced to leave her home and move into care just months short of her 100th birthday.

Prolific teenage burglars Connor Maunder, Dale Garlick and Joseph Shallcross broke into the 99-year-old woman's Cromwell Road home through her bedroom window, stealing rings and even her Lifeline alarm.

It was just one of 22 night time raids the callous trio carried out on homes around Bilton and Dunchurch Road - with several of those on vulnerable old people.

Maunder, 17, of Pickard Close in Brownsover, and Garlick, 19 of Railway Terrace, were both sentenced to four years' detention, while Shalcross, 16, of Alexander Road, was sentenced to two years' detention and training.

The court heard how Maunder, who admitted five burglary charges, had previously been convicted of stealing a collection bag from blind poppy seller and war veteran Lionel Broughton in 2008.

Garlick - who previously was convicted for stealing from his own grandparents - admitted three charges, with 20 other offences to be considered, while Shalcross pleaded guilty to two burglaries with eight other offences considered.

Prosecutor Iain Willis said that between July 6 and August 16, the three were involved in a series of 22 burglaries, all at night and ‘within a closely defined area of Rugby'.

Fifteen of them were at occupied houses, and on three occasions the people living in them were disturbed.

During their campaign the gang stole jewellery, televisions, cars, laptops, electrical items, cash, passports and cigarettes.

One of the houses they targeted, on Burnside, was the home of a woman undergoing cancer treatment, while another, on Norton Leys, had the owner's elderly mother - who has a heart condition - sleeping downstairs.

On August 14 all three defendants burgled the home of the 99-year-old woman in Cromwell Road. Among the items they stole was an engagement ring the woman was given in 1935 - which Maunder then gave to his girlfriend.

Despite nearing her 100th birthday their victim had been able to live alone, but her son says the break-in had devastated his mother and forced her to move into a care home because she no longer felt able to cope by herself.

The three were eventually caught after Maunder’s fingerprints were found on chewing gum wrappers at one of the addresses, and some of the jewellery was recovered from his girlfriend.

The other two were then linked to some of the break-ins because footprints were found which matched their trainers.

Maunder made no comment when he was interviewed, but the other two admitted the offences they had been involved in.

Matthew Brook, for Maunder, pointed out the three had not deliberately targeted elderly people.

He and Peter Freeman, for Shallcross, conceded there had to be custodial sentences, but Sophie Lomas, for Garlick, asked the judge to consider a suspended sentence.

Jailing the three, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told them: "You three, over a short period of time, went on what can only be described as a campaign of burglaries of people’s homes.

"They included the homes of the very sort of people who are most vulnerable, the sick and the infirm. I am not going to sentence you on the basis you deliberately targeted them - but you were quite prepared to include such people in your dishonest venture."

Speaking after their conviction, DC Mick Watkins of Warwickshire Police said: "This was a sickening attack as the window they chose as the point of entry was in fact her bedroom - where they could see she was asleep in her bed - and yet they still chose to do this burglary."