A 12-YEAR-OLD girl was left terrified after a man broke into her home in Kilbirnie while she was on her own in the house.

The girl hid in her bedroom and phoned police before trying to climb out of the window after Ian Hedges broke into her home.

But as she climbed out she saw cops arriving at the house.

It was one of a string of offences committed by the 43-year-old in the town over the space of two days earlier this year.

Hedges was jailed for his crime spree when he appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.

He admitted stealing from the town’s Tesco supermarket twice in the same day, and nicking a bike from Milton Road, as well as breaking into the girl’s house, stealing items from inside and resisting the police when they tried to arrest him.

The procurator fiscal depute said a Tesco staff member alerted a colleague on March 9 to Hedges acting suspiciously in the store; he was confronted, and was found trying to steal six bottles of booze from the shop.

In the ensuing struggle a bottle of vodka was smashed; a bottle of gin was recovered, but Hedges made off with the remaining four bottles, valued at £60 in total.

Later that day Hedges returned to the store and was spotted stealing for a second time.

This time the same witness and a colleague went outside and confronted him, recovering a large bag containing 15 bottles of spiced rum, valued at £300.

The following day Hedges stole the bike before carrying out his break-in at a nearby home.

The fiscal depute said the girl had stayed at home because she was unwell while the rest of her family went to visit a relative.

The girl was in an upstairs bedroom when she heard someone trying the front door, though she knew both the front and back doors were locked.

As she heard the door being banged, and tried for a second time, she decided to phone police and hid inside the bedroom.

At this point, the court was told, the girl thought she heard someone get into the house, so made to climb out of the bedroom window – but as she did so she noticed that police had arrived.

The girl went back inside, and came downstairs to find Hedges pulling himself away from police as they tried to arrest him.

Hedges was eventually arrested and charged; he was taken to hospital as he was slurring his words when questioned, but he was later released

He appeared in court on March 11 and was remanded in custody.

The fiscal depute said that after Hedges’ arrest, the girl phoned her father to tell him someone had broken in and that she had phoned police.

The family came straight home and discovered that a jumper belonging to the girl had been taken from the kitchen, as well as a pack of lady razor refill cartridges.

Hedges’ solicitor told the court: “The first thing he asked me to do was publicly apologise to the whole family, in particular the young woman, after what must have been a particularly terrifying incident.

“He consumed Valium on March 9 and has no recollection of that day and the following day.

“Perhaps that is evident from my friend’s narration.”

The lawyer said this was Hedges’ first housebreaking offence since 2003, though he had committed shoplifting offences since then.

They added: “He wants to change his ways, and had, in a way, until he was offered Valium.”

Sheriff George Jamieson jailed Hedges for 10 months, backdated to his initial remand on March 11, and ordered him to pay £500 in compensation to the girl.