A KNIFE-WIELDING burglar who forced a home-owner to wipe away incriminating fingerprints was caught after leaving DNA on a milk carton.
Samuel Buckley, 24, held scissors to his victim's throat, while demanding cash and valuables, during a terrifying 3am ordeal.
Buckley, who was described as having a "propensity for knives", had only just been released from a four-year prison sentence for robbing a woman at knifepoint.
Hull Crown Court heard how the chances of the DNA found on the carton belonging to someone else was one-in-a-billion.
Stephen Lloyd revealed how he woke to find Buckley, who had told him, "I'm here to rob you", in his bedroom.
Mr Lloyd, who works at the Defence School of Transport in Leconfield, said: "I was screaming at this point.
"He was getting more and more angry and frustrated because I would not give him my name.
"He reached for a pair of scissors and at that point I just did what he said. He said if he found out I was lying he would hurt me.
"He got a meat cleaver out and then a knife. He said 'there's never been a murder here yet'."
Buckley, of Coltman Street, west Hull, ordered him to hand over valuables and hundreds of pounds in cash.
Mr Lloyd was able to conceal the hiding place, where he had kept £4,000 to pay for his daughter's wedding.
In a bid to cover his tracks, Buckley had forced Mr Lloyd to clean fingerprints off items he had touched.
However, Buckley had helped himself to food in the fridge and swigged from the milk carton.
Forensic scientists found Buckley's DNA matched traces found on the carton.
Throughout the terrifying ordeal, Buckley repeatedly stabbed the knife into furniture.
Buckley had broken a key in a door, forcing Mr Lloyd to climb through a window.
He fled to a police station across the road from his house.
Following the burglary, Mr Lloyd said he moved out of his Goole home, where had lived for six years.
"I couldn't remain there," he said. "I was in fear."
A jury found Buckley unanimously guilty of aggravated burglary after an hour of deliberations.
Buckley had claimed he had been in the house a week before the raid and had a drink of milk.
Jailing Buckley for seven-and-a- half-years, the honorary Recorder of Hull and the East Riding, Judge Michael Mettyear, told him: "You have a bad record for somebody so young.
"It is particularly worrying because of your propensity to use knives.
"Even when knives are not held with the intention of seriously harming someone, all too often something arises and a weapon is used, and that is why these courts hear of so many cases of people murdered, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm with the use of knives.
"The evidence was absolutely overwhelming. It is incredible you decided to fight it with such a ridiculous story.
"You were not in there very long before you picked up weapons, first scissors, a meat cleaver then a kitchen knife.
"You used it to threaten him, fortunately you did not use it on him. Before that you punched him. It must have been absolutely terrifying for him.
"Only a custodial sentence of some length can be justified.
"You need to be very careful about your further conduct, if you continue in the way you have been acting you will get a life sentence."
Buckley had been jailed for knife offences on four previous occasions.
Aged 17, Buckley was previously jailed by the same judge for three years for violently attacking a homeless man and another man at a bus stop in Hessle Road.
On that occasion Judge Mettyear told him: "You are one of these young people who, I believe, will continue to offend.
"I hope I am wrong, but that is how I feel."
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