A woman came face to face with a burglar after he broke into her home thinking it was unoccupied.

Byron Mason, 25, of Wherry Road in Norwich, was before Ipswich Crown Court for sentencing on Thursday after pleading guilty to burglary with intent to steal.

Judge Richard Kelly gave Mason a nine-month prison sentence suspended for eighteen months and ordered him to complete 60 hours of unpaid work.

The court heard the victim was watching TV in her bedroom in the Bungay property at around midday on January 21 this year.

She suddenly heard a loud bang, which she thought was a noise her father had made but was in fact Mason smashing through the glass patio doors with a lump of concrete.

The woman heard someone coming up the stairs, but her bedroom door was closed so she could not see who it was.

She shouted out, asking who was there, but no one answered.

She opened the door and saw a man she did not know staring at her for about five seconds.

Mason then ran downstairs and at first the woman thought it was one of her brother’s friends but then she realised he was asleep and panicked after finding the doors smashed.

Police found the defendant’s DNA on the lump of concrete and arrested him.

In mitigation defence barrister Steven Dyble told the court Mason is now a father and has genuine remorse.

The court heard Mason was “living a lie” after he lost his job and was pretending he still had one to his family.

To support them in dire financial straits he had gone out to commit the burglary in a house he thought was unoccupied.

Because of these mitigating factors Judge Kelly suspended the sentence.