A burglar who focused aged individuals was caught raiding sleeping pensioner’s dwelling as her horrified household watched on CCTV.
Prolific thief John Donakey was seen creeping across the girl’s dwelling, looking by drawers and searching across the property. The sufferer’s household watched the incident through a Ring doorbell digicam, observing as Donakey seemed by the window, noticed the girl sleeping, earlier than getting into by a door on the opposite aspect of the property. They then known as 999 and officers attended, however Donakey was not positioned on the time.
Video footage of the incident reveals him enter the property with the girl asleep within the room. He then places on black gloves solely after opening a drawer and proceeds to look by drawers, luggage and a handbag.
According to Lancashire Live, detectives attended the next day and performed enquires with locals within the space who had observed a automobile which was not an everyday customer to the world. While conducting enquiries detectives positioned the automobile and witnessed Donakey exit the automobile and wander into the property in Penrith, Cumbria, having match the outline detectives recognized themselves to Donakey and arrested him.
Donakey, 57, and of Bexhill Gardens, St Helens, was yesterday sentenced for 9 counts of housebreaking and one offence of going geared up for theft. This associated to incidents between 2018 and June this 12 months, in line with Cumbria Police.
Donakey was sentenced to 4 years in jail and given a three-year driving ban.
Detective Constable Karen Minnion stated: “Donakey is a prolific burglar who had no difficulty with getting into properties with no regards for the occupants and made excuses for his presence if disturbed. Following his arrest in June 2022 we have been in a position to match his DNA to a different housebreaking in 2020. We additionally checked out historic burglaries with related circumstances from 2018 in Kendal and the victims have been in a position to establish Donakey as the one who had entered their houses.”
In October 2020, Donakey was disturbed inside a property in Penrith after the occupant heard noises from upstairs they usually have been the one occupant inside the property on the time. The sufferer went upstairs to verify what the noise was and observed shadows within the bed room earlier than Donakey pushed the door open, pushing and shoving previous the sufferer earlier than fleeing the scene.
In July 2018, Donakey was disturbed twice inside the identical property and inside one other property in Kendal. He made excuses every time he was disturbed on one event claiming to have been in search of somebody earlier than he fled the property.
DC Minnion continued “Everyone ought to really feel secure in their very own dwelling, you probably have skilled one thing like this, please report it to us, we take these offences extraordinarily severely. I’d prefer to take this chance to thank the vigilance of communities who’ve supported this investigation having sighted Donakey within the space earlier than the incidents.
“Today’s sentencing reveals that those that commit such offences can be discovered and dropped at justice.”