Teen raided home while OAPs slept

A TEENAGE housebreaker who stole from an elderly couple's home while they slept upstairs has been jailed for a year.

The man and woman - both in their seventies - were awakened in the early hours of December 22 last year by the sounds of 19-year-old Patrick Togher in their house.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday Togher, a prisoner at Polmont who turns 20 today, was ordered to be detained for a year. He had pleaded guilty previously to breaking in to the house in Lygon Road in Edinburgh.

Sheriff Mhairi Stephen said the fact that the elderly couple had been disturbed by the break-in was a clear aggravation of the offence. There had been full recovery of the stolen property, she said, but this was not to Togher's credit.

She said: "Your record is poor for someone of your age", adding that the break-in had been a breach of a probation order for a similar offence.