A BURGLAR wielding a claw hammer pushed a woman when she returned home to find him inside her home, smashed her car window and fled across a field.

‘Third strike’ burglar John Neate who brandished the hammer, Paul Butler and a third man carried out the burglary in Haselor Lane, near Evesham. Lookout Paul Butler, aged 21, of Smite Caravan Park near Worcester and John Neate, aged 49, of Plymouth Street, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales admitted the category one burglary at Worcester Crown Court on Thursday.

The same house was burgled on August 22 last year when a shotgun cabinet and six shotguns were stolen. The second burglary took place on September 4 last year when three passports, three savings books and £500 in cash was stolen. The two men admitted the second burglary but there was no evidence to link them to the first.

Mark Phillips, prosecuting, said the homeowner was alerted via a CCTV system at her home linked to her mobile phone. A neighbour also challenged lookout Butler ‘in no uncertain terms’. Another man, neither of the defendants, emerged from the garage ‘carrying a stack of stuff’. Butler and the third man left, leaving Neate behind.

The homeowner returned when Neate was still inside the property. Mr Phillips said: “She described him pushing past her. That was the point she noticed the claw hammer.”

Neate smashed the window of her car with the hammer when a passenger was still inside. Police had already been called and pursued Neate across a field but he ‘ran away from one lot of police officers into the arms of another’.

In police interview Neate said that he had been taken by two others to ‘buy a van’ but was ‘attacked by someone with an iron bar’.

Mr Phillips said: “He was quite bloody at the time but the prosecution say that is from running through undergrowth and hedges and the like.”

Another hammer was also found in the house with Neate’s DNA on it. Butler was identified by a police officer who recognised him from stills captured by the home’s CCTV system.

The homeowner said in a victim personal statement that she took reassurance from the fact the burglars were caught but was also ‘angry that someone could do this to us’.

“I feel there’s so little to stop this happening other than standing guard at my house all day” she said. Neate had 43 previous convictions for 135 offences, including 11 ‘dwelling house burglaries’ and his record was described as ‘appalling’ by the judge. This made him a ‘three strikes’ burglar which allows the court to impose a minimum sentence.

Butler had three previous convictions for five offences.

Gareth James, for Neate, said his client had paranoid schizophrenia. had not been taking his medication at the time of the burglary and was ‘easily used by others who are more criminally sophisticated’.

Mr James also said that Neate’s 18-year-old son was killed in a motorcycle accident. “He had taken to misusing illicit substances in an attempt to cope with his grief” said Mr James.

Judith Kenney, for Butler, said her client had ‘gone along for the ride’ and acted as a ‘lookout’ but accepted his role in the burglary as ‘joint enterprise’.

“If I may be so bold, he had too much time on his hands and was more than happy to go along with others who were out on a mission.”

Recorder Robert Spencer-Bernard jailed Neate for three years. He said to Butler: “I don’t want to blight your life further than the conviction does anyway.”

He sentenced him to 16 months suspended for two years and ordered him to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

He made no order for costs or compensation in relation to either defendant.