A careless blood splat and a historic DNA test proved to be the undoing of a Douglas man three years after he smashed windows at premises belonging to his then employer near Castletown.
Douglas magistrates heard Jamie Hall was employed at Billown Lime Quarry on Foxdale Road near to Cross Fourways when he completely shattered one window and broke another on portable cabin buildings on the quarry site back in February 2013.
The 26-year-old was originally charged with burglary in connection with the incident, but he denied this and admitted an alternative charge of criminal damage.
The prosecution conceded there was no evidence the defendant had entered the building with any intention of stealing anything, so that charge was withdrawn and no evidence offered in support of it.
For the prosecution, Barry Swain told the court the complainant in the case had locked up the metal security gates at the site and set the alarms when he left work on the night the damage was done.
But despite this, when he returned to work at around 7am the following day, he saw one of the cabins had two smashed windows, each worth around £100. One was completely shattered and the other was broken but the glass was still in position in the frame.
When police arrived to check the damage they found blood splashed on the ground beneath one of the windows, which provided a DNA sample.
Hall’s advocate James Robinson said his client had owned up to the offence and the value of the damage was relatively low.
He too emphasised there was no evidence to suggest an entry was made into the cabin and he asked magistrates to sentence on the day without an adjournment to prepare pre-sentence reports.
Mr Robinson told the court: ‘He thinks it might have been an episode of drunken mischief by him and one other person as he was then living in the south of the island, but his recollection of the incident is not good,’ he said.
‘Owing to the aforementioned, and to the passage of time he does not remember entering the building but two small blood stains were found below the most badly broken window, no doubt because he cut himself doing it,’ he said.
He reminded the court the value of the windows was low and the damage had long since been repaired.
Magistrates’ chairman Ken Faragher sentenced him to six weeks’ imprisonent.