A HOUSE burglar who ran off after being caught in the act had to be taken to hospital because of the blood he lost when he cut himself breaking in. James Cherry’s victim found a pool of blood in the kitchen after chasing the 21-year-old away from his detached house in Walcot.

And after police joined the hunt they found the intruder, who had only just got out of prison, hiding in the garden of another house with a wound in his upper thigh.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court Lee Parkin had gone out for an hour at lunchtime on April 24.

When he returned he heard noises upstairs and police saw a figure going out of an upstairs window on to a sloping roof.

As the burglar ran off he gave chase but returned to the house in Falmouth Grove as he got away.

“He found a smashed kitchen window and quite a lot of blood on the kitchen floor,” Mr Meeke said.

Although nothing had been stolen he said a number of items had been moved ready for taking away.

Mr Meeke said an officer carrying spotted a man matching the raider's description.

Cherry, who gave the court an address at a hostel in Croft Road, Old Town, admitted burglary.

Paul Trotman, defending, said his client had been in custody since his arrest and was realistic about the likely sentence that he would receive.

Jailing him for a year Recorder Maria Lamb said: “Only a matter of weeks after you have been released from a Young Offenders’ Institute for a breach of young offenders’ supervision order you went to a home, you broke in and the occupier returned while you were there.”