A DESPERATE burglar who broke into a property, put on the owner’s dressing gown and made herself a sandwich, a court heard.
Homeless woman Gemma Saxton, 39, was found by the resident’s husband sat on their sofa in Una Road, Parkeston, having been there all day on January 3.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard she had taken meat from the fridge and made a sandwich while washing it down with booze.
Rory Keene, prosecuting, said she was arrested by attending police officers who took her to a night shelter in Colchester and de-arrested her.
He said Saxton was seen walking off immediately from the safe haven before entering another property uninvited the same day.
Saxton was to get herself in trouble again just two days later after an elderly man found her in his house in Shelley Road, Lexden.
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The court heard the kind homeowner said: “I’m not going to let you go hungry” before rustling up a meal for her as they awaited the police’s arrival.
But when arrested, Saxton assaulted the officers, kicking one in the face, digging her nails into another and spitting at a third.
When interviewed by the police, the homeless woman said she was “ten out of ten drunk” on spirits and desperate for food and shelter.
A victim personal statement read to the court relating to the Parkeston break in detailed how the resident has been left “feeling unsafe” following the incident.
She described Saxton’s choice to wear her dressing gown as a “massive invasion of our privacy”.
Saxton, of no fixed address but from Colchester, admitted three offences of burglary and three of assaulting an emergency worker.
Recorder Alun Eynon-Evans suspended a one year prison sentence for 18 months and ordered her to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work, 30 days of a rehabilitation activity and 90 days of abstinence from alcohol.
Tom Worden, mitigating, said the crimes were committed because Saxton was “homeless and hungry”.
He added: “She is remorseful and disgusted with herself in that she acted in this way.”
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