A PROLIFIC burglar who woke up a sleeping boy in his bedroom as he stole his video games console has been jailed.

Damien Hawkins, 45, burgled two homes in Bradford on the same day, less than a month after being released on recall from prison.

In the first burglary of a house in Allerton, he entered as a trespasser at 5am via an insecure front door, searched the home's ground floor and then went up to its first floor.

Entering the bedroom of a sleeping 10-year-old boy, Hawkins walked past the youngster to get to his television and PlayStation 4. But the boy woke up and asked Hawkins what he was doing. Hawkins told him to be quiet and he was getting the boy a Christmas present.

Hawkins, of Crediton Avenue, Allerton, then left the room and the boy went to wake his father.

The boy's father later posted images of Hawkins taken on his home's CCTV system on Facebook to help identify him, which he subsequently was.

The stolen PlayStation 4 was later returned to its owner by someone who had bought it off Hawkins for £30 just half-an-hour after it had been stolen.

The boy later picked Hawkins out from an identification parade, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

In the second burglary, also on October 16 last year, Hawkins targeted another house in Allerton.

The woman left the house at 12.10pm to pick up her daughter from school. When she returned home at 2.30pm she was met by police who told her she had been burgled.

A number of the rooms had been ransacked, including cereal tipped on the floor and curtains and blinds ripped off the walls.

Items including a hairdryer and hair straighteners were taken by Hawkins in this incident.

Rebecca Young, prosecuting, said the homeowner felt 'shaken, violated and upset' by the mess made in the house by Hawkins.

A picture of one of her daughter's christenings had been thrown to the floor and smashed in the burglary.

Hawkins, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, was located by police and after a short chase, was arrested. He was also in possession of a bladed article, a kitchen knife, in a public area, when he was arrested.

Hawkins was described as a prolific burglar, with 73 previous convictions including 24 house burglaries and nine attempted burglaries.

John Bottomley, mitigating, said Hawkins was a past victim of physical abuse and first took heroin aged 13 and became addicted to drugs as a way to self medicate his pain and trauma of his past experiences.

Mr Bottomley added Hawkins was remorseful for confronting the boy in one of the burglaries and Hawkins has recently been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and anti-social personality disorder.

Jailing him for three years nine months, Recorder Simon Goldberg told Hawkins: "You have been described as a prolific burglar, an entirely appropriate description of you.

"There can be little more terrifying for a child than a burglar in their bedroom. I can only assume its every parents worst nightmare as well.

"You have had a difficult life and are suffering from conditions diagnosed."