Bungling burglar messaged ex from INSIDE her home when he realised he couldn't get out
A burglar who found himself stuck inside his ex's home messaged her on an ipad to say he couldn't get out.
Liam Binns, 27, climbed into his ex partner's Middlesbrough home through a window, on July 13. When he couldn't climb back out and realised the doors were locked - he picked up a family member's ipad and messaged his former partner: "Don't flip!"
The woman replied: "Who's this?" Teesside Crown Court heard that she immediately realised that the message was from someone inside her home, where the iPad was.
READ MORE: Alleged rapist got on 'hands and knees' to beg sex worker not to call police, trial told
READ MORE: Crash shuts Middlesbrough's Stokesley Road with police and ambulance called to scene
Binns told his ex that he had "jumped in through the window because he needed his passport" whilst she was out. His ex replied: "My back door keys are there - now f****** get out!!" She then called the police.
On Tuesday, Cole Cockburn, prosecuting, told the court that Binns was lying under a duvet on the sofa, when the woman returned to her house on Greenland Avenue, in Whinney Banks. He then walked out of the house with her duvet.
He later returned and began banging at the door, before headbutting a window. "The force of each strike moved the window frame," Mr Cockburn said. Binns was arrested.
He denied using the iPad when he had got into the house, telling police that he "didn't know the passcode" and that his ex "was telling lies to have him sent to prison." He was sent to prison months later, in December last year, for spitting at his her. He served eight-weeks and was made subject to a five-year restraining order.
Binns, of Marton Road in Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to burglary.
In mitigation, Stephen Constantine said that his client was in "the middle of a long running history of crack cocaine abuse" when he got into his ex's home.
"He recognises his problems," Mr Constantine said. "He's been held on remand since September and he says that prison has been a blessing in disguise - in his words, 'it forced me to sober up and it has probably save my life.' "
The court heard that Binns' old joinery job, where he worked with his grandfather, is open to him on his release from prison.
Judge Richard Clews told Binns: "This is a serious offence. You knew you were not welcome there. You were on bail at the time, for assaulting her. You don't accept it but you must have interfered with the iPad. You stole the duvet in front of her - that was brazen thing to do."
Binns was jailed for eight months.
For daily news from Teesside's courts direct to your inbox, go here to sign up to our free court newsletter