Burglar twice raided home of dead neighbour to steal treasured belongings

A heartless burglar raided the home of his dead neighbour twice just days after her passing.

Wayne Harvey was caught after cutting himself breaking into the property which had belonged to much-loved widow Lyndie Horsley. A court heard Harvey, 42, had previously already targeted the home to take the 74-year-old woman's precious jewellery, Army medals from her late husband and even her mobility scooter.

When blood found at the scene following the second burglary matched his DNA, Harvey was arrested.

It is claimed the defendant was in a relationship with a woman who moved in next door to his mother's property in Sheldon, Birmingham, days after she passed away in hospital. His mum had tragically suffered a burst artery following a bout of pneumonia.

Conniving Harvey learned of the tragic news while chatting to a grieving relative of the OAP outside her property. He broke in soon after and then returned days later for a second burglary.

But he was spared jail, Birmingham Live reports, after receiving a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years for one count of theft and an 18-month term suspended for two years for one count of burglary on January 25.

Both suspended sentences were to run concurrently. The court also ordered a rehabilitation activity requirement.

Speaking after the sentencing, Mrs Horsley's son Cavan said: "The case went to Birmingham Crown Court and he got a two years suspended sentence," Cavan said. "What does he care about that?

"I'm a strong bloke and I don't take prisoners.

"But that house was my mum's sanctity and he basically marched in there with no regard whatsoever for anybody's feelings and he turned the place upside down."

Cavan said of his beloved mother: "My mum was well-loved in the area and lived in that house for 72 years.

"I grew up in that house, my sister did, and never had that house been broken into, ever.

"Mum's dead a week and because he's got wind that our mum has died, he's broken in."

Speaking about the missing jewellery, he added: "There was a locket that was stolen that my dad gave my mum when they got engaged in 1964 I think it was.

"There was a locket that my sister bought my mum for her 50th and there was an 18 carat gold wishbone ring that my dad bought my mum on their 25th wedding anniversary. Not recovered...

"My niece thought she'd seen the locket on... a website. We reported it to the police but the police were just not interested in following it up."

The raids happened in August last year but Cavan and his family remain angry.

Mrs Horsley had been a much-loved figure in the community, having worked as a Birmingham City Council city bus guide for children with special needs for 34 years.

He said: "The French window was wide open, there was glass everywhere. At that moment in time, I was in total shock.

"This was probably about a fortnight after my mum's death, the first time I'd gone to her house after she passed. The telly had gone, the laptop had gone."

Cavan had boarded up the house but was then informed of a second raid days later. But this time blood DNA was found by detectives and Harvey was soon identified.

Items stolen during the first break-in were found in the house next to Mrs Horlsey's home where Harvey had been staying.

Cavan said: "The police later phoned me up and said, 'Did your mum know anyone called Wayne Harvey?'

"I thought not but then I went on Facebook and who should appear but the next-door neighbour?

"I said to the police, 'I know who it is, I know where they are now'."

He already had suspicions about the neighbour, he said, having met him when visiting his mum's home of 72 years.

"When I spoke to Wayne Harvey outside my mum's house I wondered if it was him," he said. "But it was confirmed by the police because it was his DNA that was splashed all over the house.

"What he had done was kick the bottom panel of the door and then shimmied through. The police confirmed he was wearing gloves because there were no actual fingerprints but as he shimmied across in his shorts and T-shirt, he cut his arms and legs to ribbons.

"He's not exactly the sharpest tool in the box."