A WOMAN who broke into her neighbour’s flat and stole diabetes medicine has been told she needs “help not punishment” by York’s top judge.

As The Press reported, three days before the burglary Angela Montgomery, 50, had attacked her neighbour's door with a hammer, said Ashleigh Heyworth prosecuting.

The resident returned home on the day of the burglary to find his diabetes medication lying on the floor and therefore unusable because it had to be kept cool in a fridge.

Montgomery has 13 previous convictions, which, the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said were mostly offences committed when she “caused trouble to neighbours”.

Montgomery, of Winston Court, Norton, pleaded guilty to burglary committed on March 24.

On Wednesday (November 29) at York Crown Court Judge Morris gave Montgomery a three-year community order with 40 days rehabilitation.

Montgomery has been in prison for three months and an application has been made for a restraining order against her, the court heard.

Before passing sentence, Judge Morris told the court “prison is not a place for her”.

At the time of the burglary he said Montgomery was “delusional” due to her poor mental health.

“She needs help not punishment,” Judge Morris said.

He told Montgomery that he would reserve any of her future cases to himself.

“You just live a quiet life,” he told her.

“You go and see your GP as soon as possible.”

Montgomery, who appeared in court via video link, admitted that she needed help.

On May 16, she had been convicted of using threatening words or behaviour towards two other people in the same street on February 22 and was made subject to a restraining order aimed at protecting them from her. She was also given a community order. 

On May 24, she was given a four-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months at York Magistrates' Court for breaching the restraining order on May 21. 

On July 18, at the same court, she was jailed for 12 weeks after she admitted a second breach of the same restraining order committed on July 16.

Montgomery had previously refused to see a psychiatrist but was now willing to co-operate with one, said her defence barrister Victoria Smith-Swain.

Miss Heyworth said the victim of the burglary was at a friend’s on March 24 when eyewitnesses to the burglary alerted him to Montgomery’s actions.

She had removed the wooden panel used to board up his broken door following her hammer attack three days earlier.

Then she had got into his flat and gone to the fridge.

The eyewitnesses told her to hand over the medication and she had returned to her own flat.

In a personal statement, the victim said that he had lived in the block of flats for five years and initially not had any problems with Montgomery.

Then she had had a “mental incident” and since then he had had problems with her.