A Belfast man who committed a burglary while on licence for another house raid was jailed today (Monday) for a year.
Leigh Pearce Smyth, 29, was told he will spend a further year on licence after his release from prison to deal with his addiction issues and risk taking behaviour.
Smyth, of Bleach Green Terrace in West Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to a single charge of burglary of a dwelling.
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Belfast Crown Court heard that on September 9, 2020, he and another male had been drinking at a house and then left to go home around 2am. Prosecuting barrister Gareth Purvis said Smyth’s accomplice started trying door handles on properties they passed until he found one open at Great Northern Street in south Belfast.
The occupier told police he heard “someone on the stairs and the person then tried to open his bedroom door which was locked”.
In a witness statement, he said: “I looked out my bedroom window and saw a male sitting on the wall. It looked to me like he was keeping an eye out for people in the street.”
Smyth’s accomplice took a television along with its remote control. Smyth put the remote control in his trousers along with £10.95 in change. The occupier alerted police and gave a detailed description of Smyth and he was arrested just off the Lisburn Road half an hour later.
It was accepted by the prosecution that there was no confrontation with the occupier and Smyth did not enter the property and his involvement was by way of “joint enterprise”.
Defence counsel Luke Curran said Smyth had suffered a number of issues after being “put out of west Belfast. He had also been the victim of a number of paramilitary-style beatings”.
He told Judge Philip Gilpin the defendant had been taking cannabis from his early teens before progressing onto heroin.
He confirmed to the court that at the time of the Great Northern Street burglary, Smyth was on licence for a similar offence after being sentenced at Newry Crown Court in September 2019 for burglary and received ten months in custody followed by ten months on licence.
Judge Gilpin said Smyth came before the court with 36 previous convictions, 12 of which were burglary offences. He noted the Probation Service assessed the defendant as a “high likelihood of reoffending”.
The judge said the case had been aggravated by the fact Smyth was involved in a burglary while on licence for a similar offence. He told Smyth that if he had contested the charge and been found guilty by a jury, he would have imposed a three-year determinate sentence.
Judge Gilpin said by virtue of his guilty plea, he would reduce the sentence to 20 months divided equally between custody and probation.
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