Homeowner tackled burglar

A Retford householder has been praised by a judge for detaining a night-time burglar who bit him during a struggle in his home.

The judge commended the occupier of the house and awarded him £250.

Intruder Jordan Woodcock, 21, was jailed for two years and four months.

The victim was in bed in Blackstope Lane on 2nd March this year, as was his 76-year-old father and his brother, who was in his 40’s.

“He heard noises and realised someone was in the kitchen.”

“He thought it was his brother,” Jim Metcalf, prosecuting, told Nottingham Crown Court this week.

The victim got up and asked what the person was doing then realised it was a burglar.

The intruder said he was in the wrong house and attempted to push past him.

A struggle followed and the householder took the burglar to the ground and tried to hold him.

Woodcock bit him to his hands and thigh.

The victim called for help to his brother and father and Woodcock was detained until the police arrived.

He said he thought his drink must have been spiked.

But he had been searching garages nearby looking for anything to steal, said Mr Metcalf.

One house had CCTV which showed him carrying a pair of boltcroppers.

Investigations revealed he had stolen a TV from the victim’s house earlier that night then returned and been confronted.

Woodcock, of Union Street, Retford, admitted the house burglary and four other burglaries or attempted burglaries of garages in Blackstope Lane and Grove Lane on the same night.

He had stolen a bicycle at one garage.

The court was told he had previous convictions for violence and dishonesty and had served a short sentence.

In mitigation it was said he had been laid off from his job at an engineering factory in Worksop last year and turned to drugs.