Man goes on trial accused of burglary and attempted burglary

Matthew John Dodson, 45, was responsible for both incidents, claimed prosecution barrister Graham O’Sullivan.

“The two properties are within 0.1 mile of each other and were both targeted by the burglar in the same night,” he said.

“At both scenes, evidence was found to link the defendant to the address.

“The Crown say it is beyond co-incidence that these two items have been found at these two properties that had been burgled.”

He said Dodson accepted that a rucksack found beside the first house belonged to him.

Dodson’s DNA was found on a shovel found in the garden of the second home.

After he was arrested, Dodson told police youths had attacked him and taken the rucksack off him.

He claimed he had picked up the shovel to defend himself against them and then got rid of it.

Dodson, of no fixed address, denies burglary and attempted burglary.

Opening the prosecution, Mr O’Sullivan said the occupier of the second home was woken by a “loud noise” in the early hours of July 25.

When he went downstairs and looked out, he “saw a man loitering outside his kitchen window at the back of the property”, said Mr O’Sullivan.

The window was damaged and the man disappeared quickly.

In the garden, the resident found a shovel which wasn’t his and on which scientists later found Dobson’s DNA.

Later that morning, two tourists woke to find that the holiday letting cottage where they were staying had been burgled as they slept.

All the drawers had been opened and their contents thrown out in an untidy search.

The only thing missing was a carton of milk.

“It would appear he (the burglar) was looking for things perhaps more valuable,” the barrister alleged.

The burglar had got in by putting a wheelie bin next to a window and climbing through the window. By the side of the wheelie bin was Dobson’s rucksack, the court heard.

The trial at York Crown Court continues.