A WOMAN accused of burgling a house while a family slept upstairs told a court she was a prostitute who had been invited indoors for sex.

Appearing at Bolton Crown Court, Simone Powell, 39, was arrested after police officers were called to a suspected burglary at a home in Park View, Bolton, in the early hours of July 23.

Paul Dockery, prosecuting, said it was around 3.20am when a male occupant heard noises and going to investigate, saw a pair of Adidas sliders he did not recognise at the bottom of the stairs.

Noticing the dining room and kitchen lights were on, he then found a woman crouched in the kitchen who leapt up shouting “boo” when he disturbed her.

On hearing shouting, the occupant’s wife came down and phoned the police before he took the accused outside to wait for their arrival.

Mr Dockery said the woman then told the couple her boyfriend was still inside the house where their three children were sleeping and when the occupant went to check she ran off.

After receiving a description of the burglar, officers searched the surrounding streets in a car and spotted a woman matching the description running down Blackburn Road about half a mile away. The officers pulled over and stopped Powell, who asked to borrow a lighter, before she was arrested and found in possession of £60 in cash, a small screwdriver and a wooden meat tenderiser mallet.

Appearing as a witness, the occupant said he had found Powell close to where he kept cash in a envelope and added that she had one of his wife’s handbags on her shoulder.

He had taken “a strong grip” of the accused and marched her outside on the street.

He said: “I let her go because she was shouting that her boyfriend was inside the house and she said: ‘you’re not going to let your wife go in there and check on her own are you?’"

The female occupant, also appearing as a witness, said that she was fearful for her daughter’s safety after Powell said: “My boyfriend is still in there. He’s a big, black man and is in the back bedroom.”

Martin Pizzey, defending, put it to the male occupant that he had let Powell into his home and paid her £60 to have sex and had accused her of being a burglar when he was caught by his wife.

Appearing in the witness box, Powell, of Fleet House, Bolton, told the court she lived on the streets and was told by a friend that she could make money by going to a house in Park Road where a man would pay her for sex.

She said when she got to the address, the male occupant was standing at the window beckoning her in with his finger and after entering the house, the two had sex somewhere between the hallway and the kitchen “for a couple of minutes”, before he told her to pretend she was a burglar.

“I did what I did and thought that’s another one I have to stomach,” she said, adding that she used the screwdriver to clean her crack pipe and that she had found the meat tenderiser while in town that day and decided to keep it for protection.

“I hope to have a home and tenderise some steaks one day,” she added.

The jury retired to consider their verdict on Friday afternoon.