A BURGLAR who raided a pensioner’s home 16 years ago has finally been jailed.

Stuart Alderson, from Blackrod, targeted the 77-year-old’s farmhouse in October, 1997.

He failed to attend court for his trial the following year — but was recently arrested at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport when he flew back from Berlin.

Preston Crown Court heard the victim, Kathleen Brindle, was so affected by the burglary at Coplands Farm in Euxton, she moved out the following day.

Mrs Brindle lost her husband three months before the burglary and she died four years ago.

Alderson, of Rigby Avenue, pleaded guilty to offences of burglary and failing to answer bail. He asked for an attempted burglary at a cottage in Withnell, near Chorley, to be taken into consideration.

Joseph Allman, prosecuting, said Mrs Brindle had shared her home with her husband for 37 years.

On October 30, 1997, she went out shopping and when she returned she found glass in a door smashed and the back door open.

Fearing that someone might be inside, she flagged down two motorists and they went in and checked the house.

A number of valuable antiques, a cheque book and a cordless phone, with a total value of £1,500, had been stolen.

The haul included a silver frame with a photo of her grandson.

After the burglary Mrs Brindle stayed with her son.

Alderson’s fingerprints were found on a china bowl. The 38-year-old was arrested in Bolton in November of that year.

He told police he had gone to the address in a car with another man he refused to name.

He sold the antiques for about £100 and used the money to pay gas and electric bills.

The court also heard Alderson was aged 22 at the time. His last conviction had been a vehicle interference in 1998.

Nick Ross, defending, said a character reference for Alderson said the man they knew was not the boy who committed the burglary.

Alderson went abroad around the time he should have appeared in court and worked in Spain, doing DJ work and some building work in Germany.

Mr Ross said: “He trave-lled out of the UK and back again, through Manchester and Liverpool Airports exclusively, between six and 10 times.

“He wondered whether the whole thing had been forgotten.”

Mr Ross added that Alderson had now totally turned his life around and felt “disgusted and ashamed”.

The judge, Recorder Brian Cummings QC, told Alderson, who was jailed for 16 months: “This is very much a case of the past returning to haunt you.”