Homeowner 'outraged' when he saw what this man was doing on his Ring doorbell

A homeowner was outraged after catching a burglar in a compromising position outside his house.

Terence Griffiths was caught out by a Ring doorbell camera trying to enter the home via the windows and rear door before he was caught short. This latest incident only adds to his lengthy criminal record, which contains dozens of entries for burglaries.

Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Wednesday, that the homeowner of an address on Noctorum Lane in Oxton, Wirral, received a notification to his phone that his Ring doorbell had been activated shortly before 10.30am on January 9 this year. When he checked the CCTV footage, he saw Griffiths "mooching around his property" and attempting to gain access via the front and rear windows as well as the back door.

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Iain Criddle, prosecuting, described how, at one point, the 54-year-old was seen "with his penis exposed, urinating" on gravel outside the property. The victim was said to have been "shocked and outraged that someone would behave like that at his property".

Griffiths, of Lansdowne Road in Birkenhead, was subsequently arrested on January 29. Under interview, he denied attempting to break into the house - telling detectives that he was homeless and "wasn't trying to steal", instead having been "there to urinate".

The defendant was described as having a "horrendous record" of 28 previous convictions for 92 offences dating back to 1981. These include 16 entries for house break-ins, another 16 for non-dwelling burglaries, one for aggravated burglary and three for being found on enclosed premises.

His most recent brush with the law saw him handed 40 weeks for offences including a dwelling burglary in November 2022. Oliver Saddington, defending, told the court: "He accepts now that he should not have been in the garden.

"It was a stupid thing to do. He does have an unattractive record.

"It is perhaps consistent with the lifestyle that he has lived for a number of years - homelessness, addiction to class A drugs and being in and out of prison. The discovery that his sister is now suffering from terminal cancer has now put things into focus for him.

"Prison does not appear to have assisted his rehabilitation. It may be that now is the perfect opportunity to give this individual a chance."

Griffiths was found guilty of attempted burglary following a trial in the magistrates' court but admitted criminal damage. He was jailed for a year.

Sentencing, Judge Garrett Byrne said: "Having failed to gain entry you then urinated at the front of the property, which I will treat as an aggravating feature of the burglary. There was a degree of planning, albeit to a limited extent.

"Clearly, your convictions represent a significant aggravating feature. You have some mitigation, and I accept that you do have family challenges.

"I was struck by the submission made by your counsel, that you have had a wake up call. The only problem with that is that there have been breaches of several licence conditions and other breaches as well, which makes it impossible in my mind to suspend this sentence."

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