A HOMELESS man broke a leisure centre window so that he would be sent back to prison, a court was told.

Christopher Young, 21, of no fixed abode, deliberately smashed a window at Bishop Auckland Leisure Centre on Sunday.

When police arrived, he told them what he had done. He admitted criminal damage when he appeared before Newton Aycliffe magistrates yesterday.

Rachel Masters, prosecuting, said: "He admitted that he picked up a brick and smashed the window to get arrested so he would be sent back to prison.

"This was a way to get locked up without hurting anyone. The only other way to get locked up was to hurt someone."

Gwendoline Burnette, in mitigation, said Young had begged the parole board not to release him from prison.

She said: "He feels he has become institutionalised and doesn't feel he has any support in the community.

"He has willfully broken the window and if you don't send him back to prison he could commit a more serious offence. It would not be safe to release him back to the streets."

Young was sentenced to a month in jail, but will be released in two weeks.

Chairman of the bench Alfred Walker said: "We have listened to what has been said and in this instance we have got no alternative but to impose a one-month imprisonment. What happens after that is not up to us."