A defenceless woman was forced to pretend she was asleep as an violent teenager climbed through her bedroom window to rob her house.
The victim was frozen with fear in her bed as then-17-year-old Bailey Esmonde, armed with a dumbbell handle, raided through her drawers and went through her kitchen cupboards, taking the £75 she had budgeted to pay her rent.
However, when Esmonde, now 18, was in the kitchen, the woman gallantly alerted her son, who was outside the ground floor flat smoking and came inside to apprehend the burglar before officers arrived and arrested him.
Esmonde had struggled with being in the care system and with substance misuse throughout his teenage years, after it was revealed in court he had told the victim’s son that he was looking for a man named Craig.
Kevin Jones, prosecuting, told Derby Crown Court on Friday March 11 that the victim had gone to bed at around 10pm in the evening of September 6 2021, before she saw a figure at her bedroom window.
Esmonde then climbed in, with the victim staying “calm and still” but was “very frightened as she pretended to be asleep”, and was “absolutely terrified” as the teenager went through her bedside drawers, report Derbyshire Live.
Mr Jones said that when Esmonde went into the kitchen, the woman ran from her bedroom and screamed her son’s name, with her son rushing back into the flat and asking the defendant what he was doing.
It was at that point that Esmonde said he was looking for a man named Craig, Mr Jones said, before the two scrapped and Esmonde was punched twice in the face before the son dragged him out of the kitchen and restrained him until the police came.
Esmonde, of Swinburne Street, Derby, was convicted at Derbyshire Justice Centre of one count of burglary.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by Mr Woods, the woman - who suffers from health complications caused by long Covid - said the problem had been compounded by the impact of the burglary and she has had to be prescribed sleeping tablets so she can sleep.
She said: “The burglary has made things much worse and I can’t see a way back.
“This may just have ruined everything for me.
“I was in my own home and felt safe and when he appeared at the window I was so scared I froze and I thought he might try to kill me.
“I can’t stop thinking about what has happened. I am left unable to control my breathing. I keep crying and getting upset and do not know how I will get better.
“The incident has had a seriously traumatic effect on my mental health. I have been getting flashbacks.”
Mr Woods added that the victim sometimes has to sleep at a neighbour’s house so she can feel safe at night.
He said: “The problem is she gets anxious she will sleep through someone coming into her address. The incident has left her feeling violated. It has turned her life upside down overnight.”
Bianca Brasoveanu, defending, said that Esmonde had responded well to help and support which he has received while remanded in custody at HMP Brinsford, a young offenders’ institution near Wolverhampton and from where Esmonde appeared via video link.
She said: “The defendant realises that his actions caused those in the premises great distress . He has been on remand now since November 11, 2021.
“I seek not to argue that this is a significant term in custody. However, I also submit that however long this defendant will spend in custody will not make peace with the complainant.
“This defendant is 18 years old and these four months that he has spent in custody are the first time in custody that he has spent. Prior to his remand, he was leading a chaotic lifestyle given his substance misuse.
“Having now gained stability and being sober, he has completed the alcohol detox and he has much better placed to engage with the support that is in place right now.
“His concentration has been found to have improved, he has benefited from, the routine that has been offered.
“It would be an extreme shame for such a young defendant to serve such a long sentence that the court may feel he deserves but is not good for his long-term needs.
“It is his last chance to get off crime and onto the right path.
But Recorder Justin Wigoder rejected Ms Brasoveanu’s mitigation and sentenced Esmonde to 15 months in a Young Offender Institution.
Sentencing, he said: “Mr Esmonde you are very young. You were 17 at the time of this offence. You are 18 now.
“I have read an extremely detailed pre-sentence report about you and I am very, very grateful to whoever prepared that report, who has clearly given a lot of time and trouble so that the court knows all about you and your unhappy background that you have had.
“I do take this very much into account, as I do the fact that you pleaded guilty at the first occasion, and you are entitled to maximum credit for that.
“That is one side of the balance. The other side of the balance that I have to do as a judge is look at the crime that you committed and the impact that had on people who were living in a house that you chose to burgle.
“When you broke into that house, the victim was lying in her bed and she became aware that there was a stranger in her room and Mr Jones has read out that the burglary is still having an impact on her five or six months down the line.
“Your counsel urges upon me that the four months you have spent in custody, which have undoubtedly been beneficial to you, are enough.
“But I am afraid I do not agree and the principle reason is that I am not satisfied in any way, shape or form that you will comply [with a community order or suspended sentence].”
Esmonde will serve half of the sentence in custody before being released on licence and must also pay a victim surcharge.
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