Cruel betrayal of trust

Lout robbed his Samaritan on Christmas Day
A SINGLE mother whose home was broken into by a drunken neighbour on Christmas Day had tried to help the criminal to turn his life around.

Kelsey Birch had offered her support to teenage Declan Ryder (18) when he moved into the house next door in Huxley Street, Clarksfield, knowing he had a string of burglary convictions.

But Ryder abused Kelsey’s trust: when she visited her family on Christmas Day he stole her daughter’s toys and two TVs after a three-day drugs and booze binge.

After his arrest, he wrote Birch a letter asking her to drop the charges and claiming police had the wrong man.

Ryder claimed he had been a Good Samaritan and had gone round to the house after hearing someone breaking in. He even said he had been injured grappling with the intruder — when in fact he had been hurt while violently resisting arrest. Officers had found him hiding in the loft of his home shortly after the break-in.

Kelsey (22) said the attack made her question her kind nature: “It’s a very mean thing to do to your next-door neighbour. Last time he got out of prison I tried helping him out. It’s like a slap in the face. I just can’t believe what he did after everything I’d done for him.”

A second 18 year old, Corey Williams, a second cousin of the victim, was also involved in the burglary.

Both pleaded guilty to burglary, and Ryder pleaded guilty to a second offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Ryder was sentenced to a total of 22 months in a young offenders’ institution, and Williams, of Lees Road, Oldham, was given 10 months suspended for 12 months.