Man is jailed after being caught 'fiddling with lock' at elderly woman's home

AN EAGLE-EYED POLICE OFFICER RECOGNISED HIM FROM CCTV

- By MARK NAYLOR

Shaun Garner, pictured outside Hull Crown Court

AN elderly woman was left terrified and in shock after she suddenly discovered to her horror that a furtive-looking man was crouched down outside her front door and "fiddling with the lock" in a bungled bid to break in.

Drug user Shaun Garner was desperate to find somewhere to sleep for the night when he tried to do the "horrible thing" of raiding the vulnerable pensioner's home.

However, an eagle-eyed police officer recognised him from CCTV images, Hull Crown Court heard. Garner, 39, of Lockwood Street, Hull, admitted attempted burglary on June 4.

Hannah Turner, prosecuting, said that a 77-year-old woman was in the kitchen at the rear of her home in east Hull, where she had lived for 38 years, when she heard a rattle at the front door as she walked through to the living room. She looked out of the window and saw a man crouched down at the front door.