Burglar Jason Baker targeted vulnerable elderly victims

Jason Baker, 36, was sentenced at Dorchester Crown Court after admitting the burglary in Great George Street in August last year.

Prosecutor Angus Robertson told the court that at about 4am on the night of the burglary Baker scaled some scaffolding outside the residential home and entered one of the flats through an open window.

While the 77-year-old occupant of the property was asleep he stole a television worth £400 and £20 in cash.

Mr Robertson said when she discovered the burglary the victim was left shocked and shaken and had concerns over security of the premises for some time afterwards. He said Baker, of Bath Street, Weymouth, had a total of 12 previous convictions for 23 burglary offences.

Tim Shorter, mitigating, said that only three of those offences involved dwelling burglaries.

He added that his client had been drinking on the night in question when he saw the scaffolding and shimmied up it without any prior planning.

Mr Shorter said: “The offence must have been committed on impulse.”

He added that since the offence Baker had suffered an injury that had caused damage to his brain and spine as well as seriously impairing his memory.

Mr Shorter said it was because of this loss of memory that Baker waited until new evidence was produced at his trial in August this year before pleading guilty, rather than admitting the offence at the first opportunity.

He said: “If he had committed the offence and he knew he had committed the offence, he would have pleaded guilty.”

Judge Roger Jarvis told the defendant: “The offence itself involved a vulnerable elderly victim who was asleep, she thought secure in her flat.

“When she discovered it later she was shocked and shaking and she now has real anxieties about her security.

“It is quite unacceptable that a lady should, at her time of life as a consequence of what you have done, have these anxieties ongoing and it is caused by your behaviour.”