Teen jailed for burglary at Coventry pensioner’s home
A teenager who smashed his way into an elderly woman’s home – dragging her off the toilet and snatching her bracelet – has been jailed after police linked him to the burglary.
Donatus Ratkus was just 16-years-old at the time of the break-in at a detached home in Cannon Hill Road, Coventry, back in September 2018.
Ratkus was jailed Warwick Crown Court on Monday (20 Sept) for four-and-a-half years.
Now aged 19, will be deported to Lithuania when he’s served his sentence.
He was one of two thieves who hurled a brick through a rear window of the property at around midday on 22 September.
They began ransacking rooms, turning out drawers, on the hunt for cash and valuables when they heard the 86-year-old victim using a toilet.
The offenders dragged her out and yanked a bracelet from her wrist before making off.
Police arrested Ratkus, of no fixed address, from an address in Newey Road seven days after the burglary.
Detectives had found blood at the scene of two more break-ins – in Greens Road and Beake Avenue, both on 14 September – which returned a DNA hit to Ratkus.
He was jailed for 27 months for those offences.
However, police later linked him through phone work and forensics to the raid in Cannon Hill Road.
Detective Constable Chris Parry from our Force CID in Coventry, said: “This was a really nasty offence. A defenceless woman was assaulted in her own home and subjected to a terrifying ordeal.
“Ratkus had already been jailed for two other burglaries but we were determined to get justice for this lady and her family.”