Southport Church Burglar on the run

Southport Church Burglar on the run

A judge has demanded to know why a father and son, who broke into 13 churches in the Southport area, have not been charged with plotting to burgle.

Gregory Hawkshaw and his 23-year-old son Danny Hawkshaw were due to be sentenced today (Thur) after admitting two burglaries with 11 more taken into consideration.

The sentencing had to be adjourned however as Hawkshaw, jnr, of Sandbrook Road, Ainsdale, who was on bail failed to attend Liverpool Crown Court and a warrant was consequently issued for his arrest.

His 45-year-old dad, of no fixed address, appeared by video link from prison, and his lawyer Nick Archer asked for sentence on him to be deferred as “he believes he can recover the majority of substantive items that were taken.”

But Judge Robert Warnock told him, “There is no prospect whatsoever of a deferred sentence in this case.”

The two men have pleaded guilty to breaking into Ainsdale Methodist Church on Liverpool Road overnight on September 30 this year and stealing two laptops and burgling St John’s Anglican Church, also in Liverpool Road, on October 10, when they took a £300 laptop.

The other offences took place in Scarisbrick, Halsall, Southport and Ainsdale and hundreds of pounds worth of cash, laptops, projectors and televisions were taken.

Judge Warnock demanded an explanation from the Crown Prosecution Service as to why the pair were only charged with two burglaries and the rest taken into consideration instead of facing a conspiracy to burgle charge.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said.

The case was adjourned until December 9.

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