Serial criminal who took his baby along to burgle a house

Terry Housecroft and Dawn Morris carried the 12-month-old child through the streets to carry out the raid.

They had also left Morris's 11-year-old daughter alone in bed at their home while they went on the raid.

Housecroft, 46, was jailed for three years for burglary under the so-called 'three strikes' legislation at Bradford Crown Court on Friday.

The pair even took the children with them for their appearance in court and the youngsters were looked after by social workers as the pair were in the dock.

Morris, 41, and her partner Housecroft, targeted her parents' home in

Huddersfield while they were away on holiday.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron said it took about half an hour to walk from the couple's home in Huddersfield to Morris' parents' house, where Housecroft forced his way in and stole a computer.

A neighbour recognised Morris carrying out the break-in last month and when police visited their home, the computer was recovered.

Morris said it was her idea to commit the burglary so they could get some money to buy things for the kids but Housecroft claimed they needed money for drugs.

A few days before the break-in, Housecroft had stolen a leg of lamb from a supermarket and was on bail for that matter when he committed the burglary.

Judge Jonathan Rose was told that the couple had come to court with the

11-year-old and the baby and the children were on the court concourse while they were in the dock being sentenced.

Housecroft, who had previous convictions for house burglary, was jailed for three years under the so-called 'three strikes' legislation.

His barrister Nadeem Bashir said he had kept out of trouble for five years apart from a couple of 'blips', but in about June or July he began to relapse.

Mr Bashir said Housecroft had tried to get help, but was told he would have to wait up to eight weeks to go on a methadone programme.

Judge Rose said the burglary had been premeditated because Morris knew her parents were away.

He said the taking of a mere baby on the burglary expedition was a 'distinctly unpleasant' part of the case.

But he told Morris that she was in a different position from Housecroft because she had not committed a burglary offence before and he decided to make her subject of a 12-month community order.

As part of the order Morris will be supervised and must do 80 hours unpaid work for the community.

Judge Rose told Morris that her attitude towards her children needed a reappraisal.