'Incredibly inept' burglar caught hanging upside down by his shoelaces as he tried to break into flat

Boozed up Lee Kenneth Moore, 41, was heard "moaning and groaning" by the couple inside who found the intruder hanging like a bat from their living-room window. When the startled victim arrived in the lounge and asked Moore "what on earth he was doing", the upside-down burglar replied: "I don't know where I am."

Prosecutor Leila Taleb said Moore had positioned recycling bins outside the flat in York city centre to break in through the small window, which had been left open.

But as he crawled through the window his laces got snagged in the frame and his foot became stuck in the window lock, York Crown Court heard.

Judge Simon Hickey said it was "one of the most inept burglaries that has appeared before me for quite some time" as he jailed Moore for two years and four months. The break-in occurred at the ground-floor flat at about 3am on July 15.

Moore had been roaming the streets and spotted an opportunity when he saw the open window, the court heard. She said the female victim had been watching films with her partner and went to bed at about midnight after leaving the window open.

The couple were woken by "somebody moaning and groaning at about 3am". The woman's partner went to check the living room and "saw a man hanging upside down from his shoelaces which had been caught on the window frame". The woman woke to find her partner in the lounge with a man hanging upside down from her window, with his head on her sofa.

Ms Taleb said: "She asked him what he was doing at her house, and he responded 'I don't know where I am'."

Her partner tried to help the burglar "get unstuck" but the couple became concerned because they "didn't know his intentions".

The woman called police while her partner restrained Moore. Officers turned up 10 minutes later to arrest him. They noticed three recycling bins had been stacked outside the living room which Moore had used to climb through the window.

Moore was taken into custody but was so intoxicated through drink and drugs that he was taken to hospital to be checked out, the court heard. He pleaded guilty to burglary with intent to steal at an earlier court hearing and was sentenced after being remanded in Hull Prison.

The court heard Moore had a "shocking" criminal record, having racked up 116 previous offences. His 59 previous convictions were "littered with thefts" and he had accumulated five burglary convictions in a four-year period between 2018 and 2022.

Matthew Stewart, mitigating, said Moore had been "walking through the city" after going out "drinking to excess" before he made the "spontaneous" decision to break into the flat.

He said Moore, a prolific shoplifter, had been living off benefits and had a drink problem and mental-health issues. Judge Mr Hickey branded the attempted break-in "incredibly inept…but nevertheless quite frightening for (the victims)".