‘You can’t get any lower than stealing from dead’

His girlfriend, Rual Gomez, 29, who lived at the same address, Flat 3, 7, Lower Hauteville, St Peter Port, abetted him in his crime, and also admitted handling stolen goods that were taken from the flat next door, the Magistrate’s Court heard.

Judge Graeme McKerrell said the offences arose from one of the most despicable set of circumstances he had come across in his very long career.

‘In simple terms, you really can’t get any lower than stealing from the dead,’ he said, sentencing Le Conte to 12 months in prison.

Crown Advocate Chris Dunford told the court how the emergency services were called to the multi-occupancy property on the evening of 30 May last year following reports that a man had suffered a heart attack. The man had died.

When they got there, the man’s father was present at the property with Le Conte, 32.

A witness said later that two days later they heard a woman’s voice telling somebody to take a ladder around the back. A woman was standing outside a window.

Le Conte was seen to climb the ladder and enter the dead man’s flat through a window. Gomez was leaning out of the window of her own flat as he did this.

Two witnesses said later that Le Conte had told them he had gone to check on his neighbour’s welfare which, said Advocate Dunford, made no sense, as he would have already known he was dead.

On he following day, 2 June, the dead man’s father was contacted by Le Conte, who said his son’s flat was not secure.

The father attended and found that some cash, a slingshot with a laser torch, a bottle of wine, and a bag of ball bearings were missing.

A neighbour told the dead man’s brother that he had seen Le Conte in the flat at 7.30am that day.

Police were called and they found the missing slingshot in Gomez’s bag in their flat. The couple were bailed.

On 5 June the dead man’s father called police to say he had been clearing the flat and had noticed further items were missing, including a bean bag chair, lighters, an electric drill and china cups. All the missing items except the cups were found when police searched the couple’s flat again four days later.

Le Conte, who had numerous previous convictions, gave mainly no comment responses in interview. Gomez, who had nothing on her record, admitted the bag was hers. She said the slingshot had been given to her, but would not say who by. She admitted entering the flat with Le Conte to ‘secure items for safe keeping.’

For Gomez, Advocate Clare Tee said her client could recall nothing. She had accepted her guilt based on the witness accounts. She accepted the offences were committed very soon after the man’s death and this must have impacted on his family.

For Le Conte, Advocate Liam Roffey said there was little he could say in mitigation. His client had admitted to probation officers that his actions had been disgusting. The time frame of the burglary would be an aggravating factor.

He had taken a quantity of non-prescription drugs at the time and the fact that he committed the offence against an acquaintance was incomprehensible to him.

Judge McKerrell said vile, heartless and cruel were other words to describe such behaviour. Gomez had known what was going on, though she was not involved in the substantive offence despite entering the dead man’s flat. Sentences of six months prison, concurrent and suspended for two years, were imposed in her case.