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A former labourer with 80 previous convictions to his name has been sent behind bars after breaking into a family home and burgling it – while a teenage boy was asleep inside.
In April this year, Dean Christopher Rawlison (33) was unanimously found guilty by a Royal Court jury of entry with intent to commit larceny.
He entered a property in Les Quennevais shortly after being dismissed from his job at a building site, rummaged through drawers and put his head round the door of a bedroom in which a 16-year-old boy was asleep, which was caught on the flat's internal security system.
He returned to the court yesterday for his sentencing, when he was also sentenced for three more crimes. He was handed a total of three years and eight months' imprisonment.
Speaking on the day after the burglary on 30 March last year, homeowner Nick Venton admitted he had initially thought his 16-year-old son, who he had left sleeping at home after going to work, had been mistaken about the intruder.
He said: “My son wasn’t sure what had happened as he’d been asleep and I thought he was talking rubbish at first, but then I checked the footage and there was a man in the house.”
After rushing home as soon as he realised what had happened, Mr Venton was relieved to find that his son was unharmed – but shocked – and that nothing appeared to have been taken.
“I was pretty stressed and angry about it – it’s not nice when you find out a stranger has been into your home, your own private space,” he added.
Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit, prosecuting, told the Royal Court yesterday that on 16 April Rawlinson had also stolen two pairs of sunglasses from De Gruchy's department store, hiding them under a black top.
Pictured: Rawlinson stole sunglasses from De Gruchy.
On 5 September he was found to be driving without a valid driving licence.
An honorary police officer stopped him in Trinity Road at 00:30 for driving with no headlights on, and he was found to have only a provisional licence.
He also gave a false name and date of birth and tried to run off when the States police arrived.
Pictured: Rawlinson was sentenced in the Royal Court yesterday.
Advocate Maletroit said: "He has a very poor criminal record with 80 convictions, 47 of them for burglary and theft. He has committed the offences in Jersey and the UK."
He recommended a four-year prison sentence.
Rawlinson admitted larceny and failing to comply with the conditions of a provisional licence and resisting arrest. But Advocate Nicholas Mière, defending, said Rawlinson still denied he had illegally entered the flat.
Advocate Mière said that if his client had committed the crime, it had been opportunistic and unplanned, and pointed out: "There was no violence or threat of violence and there was no vandalism."
Advocate Mière cited various similar cases in which sentences of three years or less had been imposed and argued: "Four years is simply too high. It would be an excessive sentence."
The advocate added: "Mr Rawlinson has specifically asked me to apologise to the court.
"He has made some extremely poor decisions. He realises it was stupid and petty conduct and anybody aged 33 should know better.
"He wants to make something of his life."
But the court was told that Rawlinson was deemed at very high risk of reconviction.
In addition to the prison sentence, Rawlinson was also banned from driving for six months.
Bailiff Sir Timothy Le Cocq, presiding, was sitting with Jurats Steven Austin-Vautier, Karen Le Cornu, David Le Heuzé, Alison Opfermann and Michael Entwistle.
Sacked labourer found guilty of break-in while teen slept
Arrest after home intruder spotted on CCTV
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