A BURGLAR who broke into an elderly widow's home and stole her late husband's war medals has finally faced justice - four years later.

Police had no idea who had burgled Hilda O'Brien's south York house and ransacked it in less than 45 minutes on November 8, 1998.

Then Christopher John Jackson, 43, was stopped at 2.40am on September 10, 2002, as he drove along Hamilton Drive West. He was three times the alcohol limit and was sentenced for that by York magistrates last October.

David Dixon, prosecuting at York Crown Court sitting in Leeds, said that police took a routine DNA sample from Jackson and a random check revealed it matched bloodstains left by the burglar.

Jackson, of Tudor Road, Acomb, pleaded guilty to burglary.

Judge Jacqueline Davies told him he would have been jailed if he had been arrested immediately after the burglary.

But because he had kept out of trouble since, apart from the drink-driving, she gave him two years' community rehabilitation and 80 hours' community punishment instead.

He must also pay the widow, who is in her seventies, £100 compensation.

Mr Dixon said the widow had to pay a TV rental company £85 because Jackson stole her television. The judge said she could not put a value on the medals.

Sam Green, representing Jackson, said he could not remember the burglary, but accepted he must have done it.e

Updated: 10:14 Saturday, August 09, 2003