Jury clear man of burgling friend’s home (From Dorset Echo)

Jury clear man of burgling friend’s home

12:00pm Friday 8th February 2013 in News

A MAN has been cleared of a burglary at his friend’s house in Bridport following a trial at Dorchester Crown Court.

Colin Harbour, 48, was accused of stealing £80 in cash from a property in Castle Square in the early hours of August 6 last year.

His friend Catrin Chadwick told the jury she had been at Mr Harbour’s house nearby in Doctor Robers Close that night and he had gone out for around ten to 15 minutes. When she returned to her home in the early hours of the morning she found a window, which had previously been left on a latch, fully closed, as well as candle wax and blood on her floor.

The blood was later found to match Mr Harbour’s DNA and Miss Chadwick claimed £80 was missing from her purse.

Mr Harbour told the jury that he had gone into Miss Chadwick’s house that night but it was only to retrieve his phone, which he had mislaid.

He said: “As the window was open I just opened it up and I stepped up and jumped in there, grabbed my phone and left straight out the front door. Before I left I shut the window and knocked something over, which I picked up.”

Mr Harbour denied that he had taken the money or stolen anything while he was inside the property.

He said: “I wasn’t in there to rob money, I was there just to get my phone.”

The jury took just over an hour to reach a not guilty verdict.