Hartlepool tearaway who burgled woman's home with his mum is sentenced for a catalogue of crimes

Ryan Bennett, 19, pleaded guilty to 13 offences including burglary, attempted burglary, assaulting emergency workers and affray.

When he was aged just 17 in August 2021, he joined his mother, Stacey Laughton, in burgling the house of a woman that Laughton had been drinking with earlier that night.

Teesside Crown Court heard the victim was in bed when she heard noises coming from downstairs.

When she went to investigate she found Laughton, 38, and Bennett, and the TV set half way down the garden.

Over the next two years, Bennett went on to commit a series of crimes attributed to significant problems from his upbringing which led to drug use and alcoholism.

In June last year, he assaulted a female ambulance worker while being transported from Middleton Grange shopping centre to hospital over fears he had taken something.

Bennett grabbed her hair and tried to kick her, breaking a bin in the vehicle, said prosecutor Anthony Pettengell.

In June this year, he approached a security guard while holding a metal pole and shouted racial slurs after being ejected from Aldi supermarket, in Peterlee.

The most serious offence he was dealt with was for an aggravated burglary, also in June, at Geordie’s Pizzeria, in Horden.

When challenged by a worker for taking pots of ice cream, he lifted his top to reveal a knife and said: “I’ve got a knife. I will slash you if you don’t get out of the way.”

Within the next 24 hours, he went on to try to burgle a house and a pub in Seaham as well as breaking into an unoccupied house.

When he was arrested by police he spat in two officers’ faces.

Kelleigh Clarke, mitigating, said that Bennett had mental health problems and had been “taken advantage of” in the past.

"This is a young man who is desperate in my submission for help,” she said.

Judge Nathan Adams agreed and gave Bennett, of Mullroy Road, Hartlepool, a three-year community order with 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 150 hours unpaid work.

Laughton, also of Mullroy Road, got 12 months prison, which were suspended for 12 months, for the burglary after making “substantial efforts” to turn her life around.