A BURGLAR disturbed raiding a woman’s home was caught after neighbours took pictures of him being confronted by his victim.

David Bradshaw was carrying out his second break-in within half an hour when he was found hiding inside a house on Beckhampton Street.

As the female householder challenged him, even going through his pockets, others in the street heard the commotion and snapped him with their mobiles.

And when police saw the images they recognised the 39-year-old who had been put on a community order just days earlier for other matters.

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Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the first raid rook place at a shed on Groundwell Road on the afternoon of Monday November 26.

He said a householder was in his kitchen when he looked down the garden to see a man he didn’t recognise in the garage.

As he walked down the garden he saw a man cycling away on his £300 bike which had been padlocked to a cupboard.

About half an hour later, at 3.30pm, a woman got back to her home on Beckhampton Street to see a mountain bike next to the house.

“She got in to her house and saw a man hiding by her stairs. She didn’t initially enter the property. She was by her front door,” he said.

“She asked ‘What are you doing?’. Said ‘What have you taken’. She remarkably searched him.

“She found in his pocket a remote control for her TV set and a pair of earrings. A number of neighbours came.”

When he realised the police were being called he fled but not before his picture had been taken.

Inside the house it was discovered that the TV had been unplugged moved ready for making off and the raider had obviously been upstairs to take the jewellery.

Bradshaw, of Shepherd Street, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and also admitted stealing from Sainsbury’s and taking co-codamol from a pharmacy.

Mark Ashley, defending, said that his client had suffered brain injuries in the past as a result of assaults and struggles to live on his own.

He has a social worker who assists him as he has issues with short term memory and looking after himself.

Jailing him for 15 months Judge Robert Pawson said “She was, in her words, petrified. That means turned to stone. She was frozen by fear.

“Rather than leave she asked you what you had stolen. You lied and said nothing, you were looking for somewhere to sleep.

“You were not doubt shocked by her activities as she searched your pockets. There were photographs, others took photographs.”