A jilted lover smashed a window and was found inside his ex’s house after a late-night, drunken bid to win her back went spectacularly wrong.

Charles Hanratty, 33, spent the last of his money on a 3am taxi from Aberdeen to Westhill to go to visit his ex-girlfriend – but she wasn’t home.

After loudly banging on doors and windows to try and wake her up, Hanratty struck the kitchen window which, due to already having been cracked, shattered.

When there was still no movement inside, the penny dropped that his former lover was not home.

However, Hanratty decided to clamber inside to wait for her to return, or until the morning so he could get a bus home.

‘He spent what little money he had on a taxi’

But that plan was scuppered when an Aberdeenshire Council housing officer showed up and Hanratty refused to say who he was or what he was doing there.

Fiscal depute Georgia Laird told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Hanratty’s former partner had gone to stay with family at the time of the incident.

She said: “At 3.30am on August 23, a neighbour of the complainer was woken by the sound of a car engine and door closing.

“She saw the accused attempt to enter the locus by knocking repeatedly on the front door and trying to get the attention of the complainer.”

When there was no answer, Hanratty walked round to the rear of the property and the neighbour heard the sound of glass smashing.

She contacted Aberdeenshire Council to report the incident and a housing officer arrived shortly after 10am.

‘His intention is to persuade her to have him back’

Ms Laird said: “They found the kitchen window at the rear smashed and the accused within refusing to provide any information as to who he was or his reason for being there.”

Hanratty, of Ivanhoe Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to a charge of vandalism.

Defence agent John Hardie his client’s four-year relationship with the woman came to an end this summer “unhappily”.

He said: “In the early hours, he’s under the influence of alcohol and he spent what little money he had on a taxi to take him to the property to visit her, a considerable distance from his address in the city.

“His intention is to persuade her to have him back.”

Mr Hardie explained that Hanratty was banging on the window in a bid to wake his former partner and that the glass broke due to already being cracked.

And he then made the decision to go inside and wait.

The solicitor said: “He’s hoping she’ll come back, or that in the morning he’ll be able to get a public bus back into town.

“He apologises to everyone involved.”

Sheriff Rhona Wark fined Hanratty £85.

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