Murton burglar struck two weeks after release from previous sentence

Durham Crown Court was told the terms of Mason Curley’s release in September from a 33-month prison sentence, also for a house burglary, included the requirement for him to wear a GPS monitoring tag, so his whereabouts could be pinpointed.

Martin Towers, prosecuting, said it was data from that tag which located Curley in the vicinity of Church Lane, Murton, in the early hours of September 25, when the home of a vulnerable 81-year-old man was burgled.

The victim was awoken at about 1am by the sound of someone creeping up the stairs and he became aware of that person entering his bedroom.

(Image: Durham Constabulary) Mr Towers said the elderly man shouted: “Get out”, and the intruder did so, turning and leaving the property.

But, on checking later, the householder discovered a wallet containing £20 cash and bank cards had been taken from a downstairs room.

Mr Towers said apart from the tag data, ring doorbell footage also placed the defendant at the scene.

He was arrested on September 27 and a prepared statement was presented to police claiming the tag he was wearing was faulty.

But at a plea hearing at the court last month Curley, 31, of Luke Crescent, Murton, admitted committing the offence, which made him a “fourth strike” domestic burglar.

(Image: Durham Constabulary) Mr Towers said the three previous domestic burglaries dated from 2012, 2017 and last year, for which he received the 33-month prison sentence.

He said the victim in this case had been subject to up to seven break-ins or attempted burglaries in recent years, but the defendant could not be linked to any of those as, for much of the time, he was in prison.

Jamie Adams, in mitigation, agreed that the defendant had been released from prison two weeks prior to his latest burglary.

Asked by Recorder Andrew Dallas, Mr Adams said he was unsure if it was part of the Government’s release programme to relieve overcrowding in prisons.

But Mr Adams said it may not matter, as the defendant was recalled to prison anyway after his arrest to serve the remainder of his previous sentence.

(Image: The Northern Echo) He told the court that an entrenched drug problem was behind the defendant’s offending as a means of funding the purchase of a range of substances used by Curley, leading to him going into and out of prison on a regular basis.

Since his most recent admission to custody, however, Mr Adams said the defendant has been working with the drug rehabilitation team in prison to address his issues.

Mr Adams said due to the drug problems it led to, “a compulsion to do something that he (Curley) should not do.”

Recorder Dallas told the defendant: “This is serious offending where you went into the home of a vulnerable 81-year-old man who suffers dementia and has care needs.

“He’s an individual who has suffered very seriously from offences of burglary, culminating in your burglary on September 25.”

But Recorder Dallas said he “stressed” he was not sentencing the defendant, in any way, on suspicion of committing any of the previous offences.

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“The obvious inference, however, of a confrontation burglary is that it will have had a serious effect on the victim.”

Recorder Dallas said an aggravating feature of the case was the fact the defendant had only been released early on licence from his previous sentence two weeks before committing the offence.

Imposing a 32-month prison sentence, the Recorder told Curley it would have been a four-year jail term had he not pleaded guilty when he did.