An Armagh man accused of breaking into a neighbour’s home and stealing from the fridge before being found asleep naked in an upstairs bedroom, will go on trial next month.
Lee Heaney, of Mullaghcreevie Park, appearing before Newry Crown Court on Tuesday via videolink from his solicitor’s office, pleaded not guilty to the single charge of burglary.
The 22-year-old is accused of breaking into a neighbouring property and stealing “food stuffs” on December 15, last year.
Previous court hearings heard that the homeowner had returned to her house and found Heaney asleep naked in her bed.
When officers got to the property, following the reports of a “possible burglary”, the female homeowner told them she had come home “to find a male sleeping, naked, in her bedroom under the blanket.”
The court also heard he had eaten a chicken burger and Alphabites, with brown sauce, while in the woman’s home.
When arrested, Heaney told the interviewing officers: “I was drunk….I thought it was my sister’s house so I went to sleep and then that woman came in and woke me and I sprinted up and realised it was the wrong house.”
In court on Tuesday the prosecution told Judge Gordon Kerr QC that a trial is expected to last for one to two days with three witnesses set to give evidence.
Freeing Heaney on bail, the judge scheduled the trial to begin on October 5.
