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Dangerous robber who was so high on diazepam didn’t remember holding knife to man’s throat after demanding cash
A man who crept into a stranger’s home where he robbed him at knifepoint has been jailed for six years and nine months.
Mark McFayden, 46, was later caught on numerous CCTV cameras trying door handles in the Buchanan Street and Lyons Road areas of Chorley.
Peter Barr, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court that at around 8am on January 23 the victim had been sleeping on his sofa when he woke to find a stranger in his house. The man had health problems and left the door unlocked to allow medics to attend in the case of an emergency, the court heard.
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Standing over him was McFayden, who said he was there to collect a debt. The man insisted he owed no money to anyone, but McFayden said he wanted “a couple of hundred”.
The intruder grabbed the man by the throat and told him to get his wallet. The man handed over £10 and said that was all he had. At that point McFayden picked up a knife which the man had left on the coffee table after having his supper the night before.
He held it to the man’s throat, point first, but his victim picked up another knife and told him he wasn’t afraid to use it. McFayden left the property with the man’s money, wallet and tobacco, and was seen cycling down the ginnel towards Seymour Street.
The same morning, six householders saw him on their CCTV trying door handles and windows in the area. McFayden pleaded guilty to robbery and six counts of attempted burglary at Preston Crown Court.
In a presentence report, the defendant said he had taken 15 diazepam tablets and did not remember the morning of January 23. He was trying to ‘right some wrongs’ in his life and stay off heroin, he said.
Sentencing, Recorder Neil Owen-Casey said: “These are extremely serious offences. This spree of attempted burglaries and robbery all take place over a short period of time and are confined to an area close to where you were living at the time.
“You are a man that is heavily convicted and you have convictions for robbery in 2004 and 2013. This is an offence where a bladed article has been used to threaten violence. I have considered what has been said in the probation report and it seems t me you are someone who presents a significant risk of further offending and I am not satisfied that simply being remorseful will prevent you from committing further offences.”
The judge said McFayden, of Seymour Street, Chorley, was a dangerous offender and handed him a sentence of six years and nine months with a two year extended licence period.
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