Resident woken by stranger seeking sleep

Rohan Bruce (28) broke into a house and was found asleep in bed by police. Photo / Rob Kidd

If Goldilocks had been drinking beer rather than eating porridge it might have played out something like this.

Like his fairytale counterpart, Dunedin's Rohan Basil-James Bruce (28) was sleepy — after a heavy drinking session with mates.

Like her, he broke into a house — a Helensburgh property, beside the Otago Golf Club course in Balmacewen Rd.

But when Bruce walked into the bedroom he had selected, he found someone already in it, the Dunedin District Court heard yesterday.

"Oh s..., I'll let you get back to sleep," he told the person.

The defendant then went to the vacant room next door and found that bed just right, reports Otago Daily Times.

He lay down and closed his eyes.

The bewildered resident called police, who found Bruce fast asleep there.

He pleaded guilty to being unlawfully in a building and intentional damage before yesterday's sentencing.

Defence counsel Debbie Ericsson said her client had not deliberately broken into the property to terrorise the people inside.

"It was an extremely poor decision in a drunken state," she said.

The court heard Bruce had become extremely intoxicated on the evening of October 14 after a prolonged booze binge with friends.He decided to walk home but became disoriented on the way, Ms Ericsson said.

After a brief nap on the lush fairways of the golf course, Bruce decided to find somewhere warmer.He chose the Joshua Pl home, Ms Ericsson said, because it looked unoccupied — there were no lights on and no vehicles in the driveway.

But it turned out to be one of several poor assessments made by Bruce that night.

Judge John Strettell called it a "gross invasion of privacy" and said it must have been terrifying for the person who woke to find a stranger standing over them.

Ms Ericsson said her client did not drink often, "but when he does, he gets out of control".

"This has brought home to him he needs to do something about [his alcohol use]," she said.

Bruce was ordered to pay $400 for the window he broke to gain entry to the house and $48 for new sheets on the bed in which he slept.

Judge Strettell sentenced him to 175 hours' community work and nine months' supervision.