A drink and cocaine-fuelled burglar who left a family traumatised when he smashed a window at dead of night has been jailed for 18 months.

Luke Toulson, 32, of Evans Towers, Ternhill Grove, central Bradford, left shattered glass and blood in the dining room at the address in the Horton Bank area of the city on April 18.

The single mother and her three children were terrified and no longer felt secure in their home, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Toulson, who admitted burglary, was sentenced on a video link to HMP Doncaster. He had been locked up on remand since committing the offence.

Prosecutor Paul Nicholson said the mother had lived at the address for ten years and had three children aged 13 and under.

She woke in the early hours to find a large double glazed window completely smashed, causing £300 damage, and fragments of glass scattered over a wide area.

Toulson was arrested because he had left his blood at the scene, Mr Nicholson told the court.

He had 22 previous convictions for 53 offences, including commercial burglary, thefts, assault and vehicle offences.

Toulson told the police he had been drinking and snorting cocaine and recalled nothing of the burglary.

The woman said in her victim personal statement that she now suffered with anxiety and had difficulty sleeping.

She was working from home at present because of the Covid-19 pandemic and found it difficult to concentrate.

One of her children suffered a panic attack when he saw the smashed window and had to spend a few days away from the address because he was so frightened.

She herself took refuge at her mother’s house one night when she thought she heard a noise and was unable to sleep.

Toulson’s solicitor advocate, Fuad Arshad, said he immediately accepted the considerable trauma and upset he had caused, especially as he was the father of a young child.

It was a drunken and impulsive offence committed on the spur of the moment.

Judge Jonathan Rose said the break-in woke the youngest child and left everyone in the household in fear.

A drunken and drug-riddled man had smashed a window in the night causing a considerable amount of damage.

The repair cost would fall heavily on a single mother with three children.

Judge Rose said that Toulson, being a father himself, should understand the lasting trauma and distress his actions had caused.