A trail of blood led police to an Angus drug addict four months after he smashed his way into an elderly Arbroath couple’s home, a court heard.
Homeless Michael McConnachie left the pensioners’ belongings strewn across the floor after breaking into the empty property on Culloden Terrace.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard DNA evidence eventually caught the 44-year-old, who faces a jail term when he is sentenced next month.
Depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie told the court: “The owners of the large residential property are elderly and unwell and were not in the house at the time.
“At around 6.15pm, a neighbour saw that a window had been smashed and that it must have been done recently. A stone had been thrown through it.
“The back door was insecure and police officers entering the property found it in a state of disarray and effects strewn across the floor and blood at the point of entry.
“The blood was swabbed and analysed. On August 27 there was a match to the accused. He was not known to the people there.
“He was detained and initially denied it, but officers told him blood and fingerprints were found there.
“He said he had a heroin addiction at the time and the blood had come from a cut from coming through the window.
“The accused told officers: ‘I didn’t take anything’.
“He was cautioned and charged and said: ‘I was homeless. I needed somewhere to stay, it was an empty house’.”
McConnachie’s solicitor told the court that his client’s first conviction dated back almost 30 years, adding: “His problem has been a long-standing drug addiction.”
McConnachie, Brechin Road, Arbroath, admitted a charge on indictment of breaking into the house at Culloden Terrace with intent to steal between April 2 and April 9 last year.
Denying McConnachie bail, Sheriff George Way said: “We are surrounded by CCTV cameras, we are supervised, we are surveilled, we are told where we can and cannot smoke.
“The last bastion of privacy where they should be protected is in their own home.
“He cannot expect to remain at liberty.”
McConnachie was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing on November 10.