A BUNGLING intruder answered the phone when it rang in the house he was burgling, a court heard.

Hapless housebreaker Matthew Hussey avoided jail, instead getting a suspended sentence, a three-month curfew – and a place on a thinking skills programme.

A judge at Chelmsford Crown Court gave jobless roofer Matthew Hussey a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

At an earlier hearing, Hussey, 19, admitted breaking a window, to get into the house in Military Road, Colchester, at 1am on May 10.

Householder Cassie Taylor and her two-year-old son were in bed upstairs. She heard the noise, but assumed it was a friend she thought was sleeping on her sofa.

She used her mobile to call her house phone and when Hussey picked it up, she recognised his voice, as he was the brother of her ex-boyfriend. Hussey, of Blackberry Road, Stanway, then came upstairs, sat down on Ms Taylor’s bed and talked to her, only leaving when her mother arrived from her house next door, in response to a text message.

Mark Lakin, prosecuting, said Hussey, who was drunk at the time, told Ms Taylor he had broken in because he wanted to see her. He added: “He was hoping there might be some physical relationship.”

Hussey later told police he had believed the house would be empty and had hoped to steal something.

Hussey’s lawyer, Steven Levy, told the court: “No threats were made to her and there was no suggestion that any harm would come to her.”

The judge also ordered Hussey to pay £150 compensation for the broken window.