A WOMAN who burgled a family's home at night has kept her freedom because it took a year for the prosecution to put her before a court.

Police arrested Amy Ellen Marie McDonagh shortly after a mother-of-four spotted the raider, torch in hand, in her darkened hallway at 11.30pm on November 13, 2017.

But it wasn't until December 20, 2018 that McDonagh first appeared before a court.

McDonagh, 33, now of Wenham Road, Foxwood, pleaded guilty to burglary.

She was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, on condition she does 20 days' rehabilitative activities.

"I am taking an exceptional course here for a night time burglary," Judge Simon Hickey told her. "I am doing it because of the length of time that has elapsed, and you have shown you can stay on the right side of the law."

Robert Galley, prosecuting, said the mother heard a noise as she was reading in bed, looked through the upstairs bannisters and saw McDonagh below.

The burglar stole a handbag with £20 cash, bank cards and ID documents from the family's kitchen and was spotted by a CCTV operator stuffing the empty purse under a drainpipe cover in nearby Bell Farm Avenue.

By then, the mother had rung police, giving a description of McDonagh's clothes, said Mr Galley.

Police went to McDonagh's then address in Bell Farm Avenue where she tried to pretend she wasn't in. But they got in and found clothing matching the mother's description.

Officers waited until forensic tests on a glove found by the drain cover and other items were completed in July 2018 before, in August 2018, asking the CPS for advice on whether to charge her.

The CPS took until October to say yes, and a summons was issued in November for McDonagh to attend York Magistrates Court on December 20.

For McDonagh, Kate Bisset said she had committed the burglary to fund her heroin addiction. Since November 2017, she had got stable accommodation, stayed out of trouble, was working with social services and was tackling her drug habit.