Church-theft shame of boy boffin

A FORMER Hulme Grammar School pupil yesterday admitted burgling a church while drunk, despite claiming he never set foot inside the building.

The 16-year-old, described by his solicitor as very intelligent with “qualifications coming out of his ears”, initially denied the offence and blamed a friend for the crime. But he changed his plea moments before he was due to stand trial when photographs of his blood inside the church were produced.

The boy was sentenced to a six-month referral order, which means he has to report to the youth-offending service, and ordered to pay £250 for the broken window, £67 for the items taken and £100 costs.

Oldham Youth Court was told the burglary at St Matthew’s Church, Chadderton Hall Road, Chadderton, in November, 2009, was discovered by a churchwarden.

A window was smashed, the contents of cupboards were scattered across the floor and items worth £67 were stolen. Police took swabs from blood found in the church and it matched the defendant.

Claire Ludlam, prosecuting, said the boy told police he was drunk with a friend and they were messing around while taking a short cut through the church grounds.

Graham Whittingham, defending, said the teenager assumed his friend had broken the window and gone into the church.

He said: “He was heavily under the influence of alcohol and went over to this window to see what was going on and leaned in to see if anyone was in there, not aware that his friend was already in, and in the course of touching the window he cut his hand.

“He does not recall entering the premises. He assumes he may have waved his arms and the blood could have come from that.”

The friend was not interviewed by police as no evidence linking him to the scene was found.

Mr Whittingham said his client had acted entirely out of character, causing much upset to his family.