IT'S difficult to imagine anything more frightening than waking up to hear the sound of someone attempting to break-in to your house with a pickaxe.

That wasn't the only burglary that Michael Repton, featured on our front page today, was responsible for.

In fact, he admitted three break-ins - all carried out while the homeowners were at home.

No doubt all those people have been left feeling fearful and violated in the one place where we expect to feel safer than anywhere.

Repton has been rightly jailed for three years for these offences as well as a string of others.

But there is no real satisfaction from the sentence though.

The court heard Repton had been addicted to heroin for 10 years and, at one point, had been sleeping in a tent near the riverside. His life sounds thoroughly miserable and, although at 33 he still has time to turn it around, he faces a steep uphill battle after a decade in the doldrums.

Worse, this is not the first time - and won't be the last - that we hear this type of sad and sorry tale.