A MOTHER of three broke down as she told a jury how she returned home days before Christmas to find her home ransacked and the family's presents missing.

Patricia Savoini wept as she described how the Christmas tree had been knocked over and all the rooms searched.

She said the pile of wrapped gifts had been taken from under the tree.

A Sony Playstation and games had gone from a bedroom and two video recorders and children's toys were also missing.

Mrs Savoini, who lives with her family in Haworth Avenue, Church, said she was devastated by the attack on her home last December 12

The court was told how there was no sign of a break-in at the premises and Andrew Dixon, a former boyfriend of her daughter Lisa Hamer was later arrested.

Two weeks before the raid, he had tried on a jacket of Lisa's which was said to have a house key in the pocket. She later found it missing.

Dixon, 18, of Blackburn Road, Accrington, denied burglary and was cleared by the jury on the direction of Judge Raymond Bennett.

Elizabeth Spears, prosecuting, had told the jury Mrs Savoini left her house secure and when she returned several hours later the back door was ajar. The internal doors, which had been shut, were open and property was missing.

Earlier, Lisa Hamer had loaned a jacket to the defendant because he had been cold.

A house key had been in the pocket and later that evening Miss Hamer noticed it was missing.

The next day, she asked Dixon if he had seen the key. He said he knew nothing about it and she assumed she had lost it.

Miss Spears said a witness had seen three youths in a ginnel near the Savoinis' home, attended an identity parade and picked out the defendant as being one of them.

On December 23, Dixon was arrested by police and interviewed.

He denied any involvement with the burglary and said at the time he had been elsewhere with friends.

Cross-examined by John Woodward, for Dixon, Miss Hamer said she couldn't say the key was in the jacket when the defendant tried it on.

She said she did not at first tell the police about the missing key as Dixon was her friend and she did not believe he had carried out the burglary.