A PROLIFIC Carlisle burglar wept as a lawyer described in detail the devastating impact of his crimes on the victims, including a local mum.

Ricky O’Neil, 38, who already had 13 previous burglaries on his criminal record, began a further spate of offending, targeting three homes in the city as well as the Ophthalmology Department of the Cumberland Infirmary.

All three of homes he raided were occupied as O’Neil sneaked around them at night looking for valuables to steal.

The defendant, of Rydal Street, Carlisle, admitted two house burglaries, an attempted house burglary, and a burglary at the hospital.

Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting said the first offence happened at a house on the city’s Kingstown Road on Sunday, September 3. After visiting relatives, the family who live there returned to the property at 8.30pm.

They found that the rear patio door window was smashed and inside the house they found a tin on the floor, from which rings and jewellery had been stolen.

Upstairs in the house, the owner had a collection of military watches, but many of them were missing, stolen by the defendant. “The estimated value of the [stolen] watches was between £3,000 and £4,000,” said Mr Rogerson.

A motion sensor monitor in the house showed that O’Neil had been coming down the stairs less than an hour before the owner returned. The defendant’s fingerprints were found at the scene.

In a victim statement, the owner said what happened had disturbed his young daughter. The family now never leave the doors unlocked and they had installed bars on the back window, making the room feel like a prison.

O’Neil’s next offending happened over October 3 and 4.

After going to The Cumberland Infirmary because he was unwell, O’Neil self-discharged and then broke into the Ophthalmology Department, stealing hoodies.

A nurse who works there reported how he had moved items around, including laptop computers which contain personal staff details.

In the early hours of October 4, O’Neil broke into a house in Dalston Road, sneaking into a bedroom where a woman was sleeping with her three-year-old son. The husband was in an upstairs room playing video games.

The defendant stole mobile phones from the bedside tables and a laptop from the ground floor of the house. Near the back door, the owners found a hospital wrist band bearing the name Ricky O’Neil.

The mother said she no longer feels safe in the house and wants to move. Knowing a stranger had been in her little boy’s room had left her feeling “scared and vulnerable,” she said.

“I haven’t felt safe since that night,” she said.

O’Neil next raided the home of a retired couple in Dalston Road, where the woman reported how she was dozing in bed in the early hours when she was disturbed by a noise. “She saw a dark male figure walking quickly past the bottom of the bed and out of the bedroom,” said Mr Rogerson.

“She thought it was her husband.”

When she got up to investigate, she found her husband in the study. In the living room, they found a garden fork had been left on the settee. Their MacBook had been stolen from the property as well as clothing.

After 43 years in the house, they had never experienced anything like it, they said.

The final offence – an attempted burglary – happened at Colville Street, Denton Holme, when a resident investigating a noise had a fleeting glimpse of the defendant jumping over a fence.

Feeling stressed by what happened, the householder, who suffers epilepsy, had for the first time in six months begun to have repeated seizures. “He struggles to sleep,” said Mr Rogerson.

Kim Whittlestone, defending, said O’Neil accepted that his criminal record is appalling. Following his release from jail in 2019, he had remained drug free until shortly before this spate of offending.

But he had suffered family traumas, including his niece having a terminal illness and his mother becoming unwell.  “He started mixing with the wrong crowd, and began a downward spiral,” said the barrister.

He had been found unconscious in the street by the police and had little recollection of his spate of offending. The defendant’s response to the details of what he did clearly showed the remorse he feels, said Miss Whittlestone.

A supportive father to his child, he now faced being away from his family. “He had really tried to remain drug free,” said Miss Whittlestone.

Judge Nicholas Barker said the defendant's remorse was clear but the impact of his crimes were clear from the victim statements. The mother whose home he raided faced the terrifying thought of him in their room, inches from their bed.

“She was in bed with her three-year-old when you prowled into her room and stole phones which were on the bedside table,” said the judge. 

"The impact of dwelling house burglary is clear from the victim impact statements which have been read in this case.

"The invasion of privacy is at the root of this offending, which is why dwelling house burglaries are so serious so far as these courts are concerned, but you have had judges tell you on many times before...

"I accept that you were in a spiral at the time, and it's clear you were in a desperate state. But your have had interventions over the years and you know there are agencies  to whom you can turn for assistance, but you didn't.

"You knew when you started breaking into these properties what the consequences would be. It's a catalogue of offending." Judge Barker jailed the defendant for 40 months.