A burglar who swore his innocence on his unborn baby’s life was described by a judge as “beneath contempt”.

David Hutchinson, 25, of Clayton Road, Lidget Green, who had made the comment when questioned by police, admitted a charge of burglary at an earlier hearing and was sentenced yesterday at Bradford Crown Court.

Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie told the court items taken in the burglary, at Summerhill Street, Bradford, in January this year, included electrical goods of “relatively low value” and Slovakian bank notes that had been mounted on a picture frame.

Hutchinson had previously lived next door to the burgled house, which was home to Philip Murgatroyd, who was studying away from Bradford at the time of the offence, the court heard.

The defendant told police he had found the window to the house to be broken and had gone inside to check on the property, swearing on his unborn child’s life he was not responsible, the court was told.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: “I find that a particularly disgraceful part of this case, that a guilty man should swear on the life of his unborn child.”

The court heard Hutchinson had 30 previous convictions for 51 offences and the Summerhill Street burglary was committed in breach of a community order imposed for burgling a primary school.

Judge Durham Hall said on every occasion he had been before the lower courts, instead of being “slapped down severely” he had been treated with considerable leniency.

He said: “You are a product perhaps of an unhappy upbringing, but you are also a product of a lenient and forgiving criminal justice system, which does not operate, sadly, a zero-tolerance policy.”

Sentencing Hutchinson to eight months in prison suspended for two years, with two years’ supervision, a high-level activity requirement and 200 hours’ unpaid work, the judge said: “You are supposed to be a man, Mr Hutchinson, and I do find it very difficult to show any leniency when you are swearing your innocence on that child’s life.”

Jayne Beckett, for Hutchinson, told the court her client had had a difficult upbringing and he was a carer for his partner’s disabled uncle.

She said the comment about his baby was “perhaps not meant in the way it has come across”.