YORK’S most notorious burglar has been jailed again, for four years.

“Blip boy” John Michael Harris, 34, punched a young catering assistant, breaking a bone in his face, and left him with a disfiguring scar.

He also broke into the home of a ten-week-old baby and stole the baby’s changing bag, York Crown Court heard.

Recorder Christopher Knox told Harris: “As far as your usefulness (is concerned) you are a complete waste of time. You are dangerous.

That is the reason why you should be locked up.” He sentenced him to a year for the punch and a further three years for the burglary.

In a victim statement, the 20-yearold catering assistant said the surgeon who mended his broken face, gave him a choice of surgery that would leave him with a permanently scarred side of the face or a permanent scar from ear to ear across the crown of his head. He chose the latter.

“When I came round from the general anaesthetic and looked in the mirror for the first time, I was horrified,” he said. “He (Harris) has never accepted what he has done or shown remorse.”

He said the scar was so noticeable people looked at him in the street and the incident had made him more nervous and edgy. Harris, of Buckden House in Bouthwaite Drive, Acomb, who was involved in two trials, denied charges of causing grievous bodily harm and burglary.

A jury at York Crown Court heard the assistant say that for no apparent reason Harris suddenly decided the 20-year-old had to leave a party and threw him towards the door and punched him once on the side of the face. The blow broke his cheekbone and his eye socket.

They failed to agree on their verdict and were discharged.

On the day he was due to be retried on the GBH charge, Harris changed his plea after Recorder Knox told him he would give him the minimum sentence for a serial burglar of three years for the burglary and reduce the GBH sentence for pleading guilty.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court convicted him of the burglary before the GBH trial. That jury heard he confronted the baby’s mother at 10.30pm on October 24, 2013, when she heard him downstairs in the Acomb family’s home and went to investigate.

His barrister Taryn Turner said he was “feeling positive” he was tackling his long-term drug problem while on remand. Harris has 103 previous convictions for dishonesty, many of them for burglary, and seven for violence.