Burglar jailed after DNA matched from cigarette left in the Hartlepool home of his non-smoking victims

Hartlepool-based serial burglar Michael Mathieson’s DNA was on record after his 39 convictions for 89 offences, including previous burglaries, and scientists matched it with the cigarette butt, Teesside Crown Court was told.

In 2015 he had been jailed for 45 months for a house burglary, said prosecutor Emma Atkinson, and he was a third-strike burglar facing a minimum sentence of three years.

Mathieson was on police bail for a shop theft and two commercial burglaries in February and March when he broke into a house Breckonhill Close, Hartlepool, in the early hours when the family were asleep.

The mother was awakened at 3.15am by her cats, which were kept locked downstairs coming into the bedroom.

She went to investigate and she saw a light on in the lounge, a biscuit tin with the lid removed, a vodka bottle moved from its place, and her purse had been rifled. About £16 and bank cards were missing.

Mathieson had also been been arrested for a domestic disturbance on January 20 involving his live-in partner of 14 months who had tried unsuccessfully to leave him, said Miss Atkinson.

She locked herself inside her car, but he threatened to slash the tyres and smash the windows, and eventually she returned inside the house.

He put the door key on a lanyard around his neck and he refused to let her go off to work. She texted her line manager who contacted the police. But when an officer arrived at the house his partner said that there had been a misunderstanding.

Miss Atkinson said that when he was arrested he denied every being violent to a woman.

Ian Mullarkey, defending, said that Mathieson had a poor record but he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

He added: “He was doing really well prior to these offences, 12 months offence-free living and he had started a new relationship.

“But he began misusing his old substances that led to a downward spiral after becoming drugs-free.”

He said that Mathieson had been on remand in Durham Jail locked in his cell for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day because of the Covid-19 restrictions.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Paul Watson QC said: “You have got a long, bad record particularly for breaking into people’s homes.”

Mathieson, of no fixed address but formerly of Wolviston Road, Hartlepool, who appeared over a videolink from Durham Prison, was jailed for four years after he pleaded guilty to affray, burglaries and theft.

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