Burglar ties up home-alone girl with pair of jeans

File photo / NZH

A burglar who broke into a house to steal cannabis tied up a teenage girl he found home alone with a pair of jeans, a court was told today.

In Wellington District Court Garry Travers, a 31-year-old unemployed father of four, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for kidnapping and burglary.

Passing sentence, Judge Bruce Davidson said there were aggravating features which had left the victim still having flashbacks about the events of June 2 last year.

"This was an out and out home invasion."

Travers - who had about 120 previous convictions, 28 of them burglaries - had gone in the early hours of the morning to the house of a man he knew, intending to steal cannabis.

He discovered the homeowner's 17-year-old daughter there by herself but that did not deter him.

The judge said Travers gained entry under false pretext, saying he was a tradesman who had been called to do some work.

He then threatened the frightened girl with garden clippers he had brought with him to harvest the cannabis.

Stealing her mobile phone, Travers restrained the victim with clothing for about 10 minutes while he completed the burglary.

As well as cannabis, about $1800 worth of electronic equipment was taken from the house. None of it had been recovered.

The family had since moved from the property.

As Travers' partner and two of his young children looked on from the public gallery, Judge Davidson described him as a recidivist burglar who had built an extensive list of convictions since 1994 and whose use of methamphetamine and cannabis had increased over the last few years.

Although his guilty pleas to the latest charges had been slow coming, they had at least saved the victim from having to give evidence of her ordeal in court.

In his view, five years behind bars was "the absolute lowest starting point" for sentencing, the judge said.

He deducted a quarter of that as credit for Travers' guilty plea and three months for remorse.

The total jail terms were three-and-a-half years for the burglary and two-and-a-half for kidnapping, to be served concurrently.

An unrelated charge of possessing cannabis brought a one month concurrent sentence.

The judge said 10 cannabis plants and 323gm of loose cannabis were found some time later in Travers' home.

- NZPA