A BURGLAR who bled when breaking into a student house was caught when police tested for DNA and found his details on the police database.

Recovering drug addict Christopher Coulton, who has 17 previous convictions for 37 offences, was arrested after a sharp-eyed victim spotted a drop of blood on her front door after a burglary.

The 25-year-old, of St Audreys Close, Hatfield, at first denied the burglary and claimed he was knocking on doors in Heron Way to try to find a friend after he hurt himself.

But he changed his mind and admitted burglary and asked for five thefts and an attempted burglary to be taken into consideration by the judge.

Prosecuting, Andrea Scott-Lynch, told St Albans Crown Court that one of the students who lived in the house heard a noise at 4.50am on April 1 but assumed it was her housemate coming home and went back to sleep.

Hours later, another housemate got up and saw the front door open but again, assumed it was another housemate and closed it.

The first student then came down to breakfast and realised her rucksack, which contained her iPod Nano and a camera memory card containing thousands of photos were missing, along with a carrier bag containing a book on statistics and her makeup.

Afterwards, the students called police and noticed the blood drop on the front door which had not been there prior to the burglary.

Defending, Carl Woolf, said Coulton’s record was fairly normal for someone who has had a drug problem.

“When you deal with that problem, offending stops almost over night,” he said.

He said his client, who was also in breach of two suspended sentences and had been remanded in custody, was now drug free and was taking advantage of education courses during his time in prison.

“His probation officer, who probably knows him best of all, says she has seen a real change in him this time,” he added.

The Recorder, Mr Jonathan Lee, sentenced the defendant to 15 months in prison and activated two previous suspended sentences of six weeks to be served consecutively.

He said: “You must make the most of the opportunities that there are during the sentence to get yourself clean.”