Gainsborough: Pair found guilty of raiding vulnerable man’s home

A man and woman who targeted a vulnerable Gainsborough man in his own home have been warned to expect jail sentences.
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Anita Gray, 48, and Gary Holmes, 42, were found guilty of burgling the home of Donald Hudson after a three day trial at Lincoln Crown Court.

The pair had denied stealing Mr Hudson’s new camera after calling uninvited at his flat in South Parade but they were convicted by a jury who deliberated for just over two hours.

Gray and Holmes will be sentenced next month after the case was adjourned for the preparation of probation reports but Judge John Pini remanded them both in to custody and told them to expect jail terms.

Judge Pini said: “It has to be an immediate custodial sentence.

“The victim was targeted because he was vulnerable. You both knew that, that’s why you did it.”

Giving evidence by video-link Mr Hudson told the jury that he called the police straight away after a man and woman entered his flat in South Parade.

Mr Hudson, who walks with a stick, said the woman was first to call at his property and later went in to his sitting room. A man also walked in to his flat minutes later and began waving round a piece of paper.

He described how a woman with dark long hair was first to call at his flat and was then followed minutes later by a man with short light brown hair.

Mr Hudson said: “When I eventually came in to the sitting room she smiled all innocent like.

“I wanted them to go but I did not want any trouble so I went to get my neighbour to see if he could get rid of them.”

Mr Hudson told the court he had bought the camera just three weeks earlier for around £80 or £90 and was planning a trip to Lincoln to take some photographs.

He denied a defence suggestion that the woman never entered his sitting room.

Mr Hudson said: “I didn’t ask her to come in, she just came in.

“She said she wanted to use the toilet at first, which she never did, and then she asked for some water.”

Mr Hudson said he had seen the man earlier the same day at a bus stop in Church Street. He also denied inviting the man into his home.

He added: “He just walked past me like I wasn’t there.”

Mr Hudson said he also believed he may have seen the woman before.

He said: “She was always begging for money. I saw her in the Market Place one time.”

Once the pair had gone Mr Hudson said he realised straight away that his camera was gone.

He said: “I saw it in the morning, the same day, and it was in order.”

Gray, of Queensway, Gainsborough, and Holmes, of Dunstall Walk, Gainsborough, both denied a charge of burglary following the incident on December, 10, 2013.

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