Senior detective 'delighted' as burglars Dean English and Colin Rutherford are jailed

Dean English and Colin Rutherford were sent to prison last week after a court heard three houses in the Durham City area had been targeted on the same day.

Read: Burglars jailed for more than eight years

English, 37, from Horden, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and four charges of supplying Class A drugs after being caught selling heroin to undercover officers and was jailed for 69 months at Durham Crown Court.

Rutherford, 42, from Peterlee, admitted two counts of burglary and one count of attempted burglary and was jailed for 32 months.

The pair have more than 100 previous convictions each. English, 37, who was known as a youth as the Singing Defective, has offended regularly since he was a youth, amassing 77 convictions prior to 2004 when he was sentenced to nine years in prison for causing the death by dangerous driving of 15-year-old Ian Gourley.

English, driving a stolen car, killed Ian as he played on open ground in Peterlee.

The court heard English and Rutherford burgled or attempted to burgle three houses on the same day.

The attempted break-in was at a house in Shadforth. The pair had ransacked a house in Belmont by taking a crow bar from a shed and using it to force a bathroom window, while they had been disturbed by the householder after entering a house in Sherburn via an upstairs window.

Durham Constabulary's Inspector Sara Baxter said: "English and Rutherford are two prolific criminals and I am delighted that they will be off our streets for quite some time.

"A lot of hard work has gone into securing these convictions to protect our communities and I would like to thank all the officers involved for their dedication and persistence.

"These jail sentences aren’t just good news for the victims in this particular case, they are good news for people across County Durham.

"I have no doubt that jailing these two repeat burglars will prevent many others from falling victim to them in the future."