Yahoo News 'You might not be a very good burglar' thief told as he's jailed again by judge with scathing quip
A 'professional burglar' was told 'you might not be a very good burglar' in a scathing quip by the judge as he was sent to prison. Paul McKenna, one of London's most prolific thieves, appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court with 78 convictions for 156 offences under his belt, the most recent having come at the same court seven months ago in August last year.
MyLondon covered that case too, when the light-fingered joker abandoned his barrister and tried to convince the judge they had no legal jurisdiction because the court was in France. The 42-year-old pointed to the royal coat of arms at the back of the courtroom, with the motto 'Dieu et mon droit', and said: "If you look behind you, your actual law is written in French."
McKenna also questioned if the judge could be sure of his identity, after giving 23 different aliases to police, and claimed charging someone by post was unlawful. After much despair, his baffling defence was batted away and he was jailed for 18 months. On Tuesday (April 16), McKenna appeared calmer, with a barrister, and even cast a knowing smile across the court to MyLondon's reporter.
This time he was up for an attempted domestic burglary, which had only come to court nearly two years after the incident. On July 23 2022, McKenna tried to raid a house on St Paul Street in Islington at around 9pm, but cut himself on the broken window and fled when he was seen by a neighbour in her 90s, prosecutor Katie Jones told the court.
After leaving a trail of blood down the stairs and into the street, police gathered DNA evidence and brought the charge of attempted burglary this year. McKenna pleaded guilty at a hearing on March 21 2024, one week before the license period for his last prison sentence ended on March 28.
McKenna was previously jailed for 40 months at Wood Green Crown Court in October 2022, and for 18 months at Inner London Crown Court in 2020. He was described as a 'habitual thief' by City of London Police, who also banned him from entering the Square Mile after a series of raids on shops in the City.
Calling for a prison sentence, Ms Jones said: "The aggravating factor in this case is Mr McKenna's past offending. 124 offences of theft. 66 offences alone of burglary. It appears he was just outside the license period for conviction number 73."
'You are essentially a professional burglar'
Defence counsel Natasha Nair, whose services McKenna opted to keep ahead of the hearing, said her client had 'stabilised a lot' since meeting him for the first time in March, and had managed to go cold Turkey from crack cocaine after a 10 day detox in prison.
"He has a very long history of drug addiction. He has had an addiction to crack cocaine from the age of 15," Ms Nair said. "While in custody he has taken steps to address the root cause of his behaviour."
Left with no option but to jail him again, this time for 12 months, Recorder Dermot Keating KC told McKenna: "In light of your offending, you are essentially a professional burglar. You might not be a very good burglar, because of the record you have, but you have committed a lot of burglaries.
"I'm not going to go through them. You know they are long. They run to 20 pages.
"Regrettably for most of your life, you go to prison, you get out, you go to prison. It appears due to drugs, which are a blight on your life."
McKenna will also pay a £187 victim surcharge.
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