A man who tried to climb through a sleeping woman’s bedroom window has been jailed.
Scott Burns was pushed back out of the window by the woman, who had been woken by her barking dog.
The following day he was found in the home of a neighbour having pried off a plywood panel to gain entry, Inverness Sheriff Court heard.
Burns appeared via videolink from custody to admit charges of breaking into a residential property and destroying or damaging the property belonging to another.
He also pled guilty to being in breach of bail by attempting to enter the woman’s flat when a previously imposed curfew required him to be within his own home.
Burns was also sentenced for other offences, including stealing a bicycle belonging to a member of staff at Raigmore Hospital and taking a till from a street food stand in the city’s Victorian Market.
Fiscal depute David Morton told the court that, at around 8pm on August 6 of this year the woman was asleep in her bed at her Murray Terrace home.
Woman woke to man climbing through window
“She was woken by her dog barking. She looked up and saw a male, Mr Burns, being an acquaintance, climbing through her window,” he said.
“She told him to f*** off but he continued to climb in. She pushed him back out of the window.”
The woman went on to contact the police
The following day Burns, who also lives on Murray Terrace, was found within the home of another neighbour on his street, having used a crowbar to pry a plywood panel from a window to gain entry.
Mr Morton told the court: “The complainer is a neighbour, they are well known to each other and generally spend time in and out of each other’s houses.”
Referring to the incident involving the woman, Burns’ solicitor Finn Curran told the court: “His position is that he thought it was a different person’s address – a friend of his named Paul.
“There was some stuff in that address that he was entering to take back.”
A ‘frightening and unpleasant experience’
The defence agent told Sheriff Gary Aitken that the incidents had occurred at a time when his client was “engaging in drink and drugs – which had always been the root of his difficulties”.
Sheriff Aitken told Burns that the “nature and number” of his crimes meant that nothing other than a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He imposed various custodial sentences, which will run at the same time.
The longest sentence was for the incident at the woman’s flat, requiring Burns to serve nine months backdated to August 16 this year.
He told Burns: “This must have been an exceptionally frightening and unpleasant experience for the lady.”
