A DISABLED man and his wife were terrorised in their Dalton home by a night-time burglar.

And although he fled when the couple challenged him, the couple now suffer lasting effects, Bradford Crown Court was told.

They also lost an engagement ring which was to be handed down to the woman’s granddaughter.

Details of the raid emerged yesterday as Shane Dawson was jailed for 15 months for burglary.

The woman and her husband, who suffers from MS, were in bed when she was woken by a “calm and confident” intruder.

Prosecutor Stephanie Hancock told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that the complainant was petrified, but managed to jump out of bed and tell the burglar to get out.

The intruder left and when the woman searched her home she found that property including the purse from her handbag, which had been on her bedside cabinet, and her engagement ring had been taken.

A police dog followed a scent to nearby flats where officers found a stolen TV and a mobile phone with a picture of the victim’s grandson.

The court heard that 23-year-old Dawson, of Helme Lane, Meltham, was one of three people found in the flat.

He was charged with the burglary after his fingerprints were discovered on the stolen television.

A second man in the flat was not charged because of insufficient evidence.

Miss Hancock confirmed that none of the stolen jewellery had been recovered .

The court heard that the victim suffered depression as a direct consequence and now found it very difficult to leave her disabled husband alone in the house.

Recorder Paul Watson QC noted that she found it difficult to sleep, was anxious in her own home and was on sick leave from work.

Dawson, who had no previous convictions for burglary, admitted being involved in the break-in last September, but the judge accepted that he was not the man who had gone into the bedroom because the woman’s description of the intruder did not match him.

Barrister Chloe Hudson, for Dawson, said the offence was completely out of character for him and drink and drugs were an explanation for what he did.

In assessing the appropriate jail term for Dawson, Recorder Watson said he had to take account of his guilty plea, his lack of similar offending in the past and the fact that he had been on an electronically-monitored curfew since September.

The judge pointed out that although Dawson may not have known how vulnerable the victims were he had to take the consequences of choosing to break into someone’s home.

Jailing Dawson, the judge noted that his role had been a secondary one and the prison term would be his first sentence of custody.