A FATHER-of-one refused to be taken down after being jailed for burgling his brother’s ex-girlfriend.

Five extra court officers were called into the courtroom as 29-year-old Scott Howard, of Braymoor Road, Worcester, shouted and refused to go down after being told he must serve eight months behind bars for the burglary.

Judge Patrick Thomas QC, sentencing him at Worcester Crown Court on Monday, told him it was a “mean” offence which had left his victim anxious and frightened.

The court was told that on August 1, Howard broke in through the front door of Stacey Elliot’s home in Sydney Street, Worcester, and ransacked the house.

He caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage, smashing plant pots and fence panels in the garden and stole a £150 television which he sold to his sister the same day for just £15.

Prosecutor Christopher Hehir said Miss Elliot had suspected Howard was be-hind the burglary and had been proved right when his DNA was found in the house, in blood from the cuts to his wrist caused by smashing the window.

He pleaded guilty at a hearing earlier this month.

Sentencing Howard to eight months in prison, Judge Thomas said with his long list of previous convictions – including two for theft from houses, though none for burglary – an immediate custodial sentence was the only option.

“This was a mean offence and you know it was a mean offence,” he said. “This young lady had done no harm to you at all. She had been a girlfriend of your brother’s, she was a friend of yours, and you decided to bash your way into her home and steal one of the few valuable things she had – a television which was a gift from her mother.”

Defending, Mark Sheward said Howard had begun “self-medicating” with alcohol as a way of coping with undiagnosed mental health issues, including voices in his head telling him to harm himself.

He said Howard had been drunk on the day in question and had initially gone to Miss Elliot’s house to try to borrow money from her.

Mr Sheward helped calm Howard and conviced him to go with the dock officers after the sentencing had finished.