A BURGLAR was happy to be sent to prison by the Royal Court yesterday. Stephen Thompson told the court that he was too paranoid to face the outside world without drugs and would resort to crime to fund his habit.

‘I am a model prisoner but if I was released today I would be straight back on drugs and the old bad me,’ he said.

‘When I am in jail I am proud and moral but when I am outside I have no morals at all.’

Thompson, 27, was sentenced to three years in prison for burgling a first-floor flat in Collings Road in March this year.

He was caught in the property by the owner and escaped by jumping through the kitchen window. He fractured his skull in the fall, but still fled on foot.

But Thompson, who defended himself in court and refused to cooperate with the authorities, said he wanted to be transferred to a UK prison.

While he was less paranoid at Les Nicolles than in normal life, he was still unable to interact in groups and engage in courses.

No educational courses at the prison interested him, he said, but he might be able to do a vocational course at a UK jail and learn a trade.

He had no faith that he could be rehabilitated at Les Nicolles.

Deputy Bailiff Richard Collas, passing sentence, said the court had no influence on whether he should be transferred. That was up to the prison authorities, but he did not think a transfer would be good for him.

‘You must learn to cooperate with and trust those people who are doing their very best to help you.’

Mr Collas, who urged Thompson to work with prison services, said burglaries on people’s homes were one of the evils of society.

‘The occupier of the flat has to cope with the knowledge that you breached the security of his private home and that cannot be accepted.’

Thompson, who had numerous previous convictions and had served several prison terms, told the court that he had been involved with drugs since the age of 14, and addicted to heroin and Valium for 10 years.

He said he suffered from acute paranoia and anxiety.

‘I don’t really like reality and take any drug that makes me sleepy,’ he said.

‘When I take heroin I can talk to people more easily and feel I can do anything. It is a vicious circle because I know they are no good for me but they have such a hold on me that I cannot say no.’

He said that there was no solution to his drug problem, and, although he was currently clean, he would be back on drugs as soon as he was released.

‘I have been on antidepressants in the past but the only thing that can help me is Valium and heroin.’