Prison for “third-strike” South Yorkshire burglar tackled by 75-year-old man

Derek Crossland triggered a video when he pressed a doorbell, alerting the owner of the house, at 6pm, on February 1, prosecutor Gurdial Singh said.

The owner saw Crossland go down the side of the house and rang his 84-year-old mother who said his 75-year-old father had gone to investigate.

Crossland broke in through a rear window, Mr Singh said, and conducted "a messy search," taking a watch and some tablets.

He came "bounding down the stairs" and the owner's elderly father managed to get him into a headlock.

Crossland dropped the hammer he'd been carrying and shouted: "Let me go. Someone told me to come here because I owe them money."

He broke free from the owner's father, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and ran off.

The hammer was retrieved and Crossland's DNA was found on it. He was arrested on February 4, and told police he went to the house looking for work.

He denied he had struggled with the 75-year-old man.

Mr Singh described him as a "third strike burglar for the sixth time" and said his convictions for burglary led to a detention and training order in 2001, as well as sentences of two years in a Young Offenders Institution in 2003, three years and 231 days in 2004, 45 months and 318 days in 2007, 40 months in 2012, and 54 months in 2017.

Richard Barradell, mitigating, said Crossland has a "terrible" history of depression and anxiety, and a "feeling of hopelessness."

"After his release he relapses into drug use and gets into a mess. He faced the music and pleaded guilty in the end.

"He wasn't trying to fight his way out. He was shouting "let me go." He dropped the hammer. He was begging to be let out."

Crossland, 36, of Halifax Street, Barnsley, pleaded guilty to burglary before a trial on June 22.

Judge Sarah Wright sentenced him to five years. Time on remand will count and he will serve at least half before he is released on licence.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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