A burglar has been brought to justice ten years after raiding Sir Gareth Rhys Williams’ family home
(Picture: Linkedin)A burglar who raided the home of one of Britain’s most senior civil servants has been brought to justice nearly a decade after carrying out the crime.
Asha Walsh-Hutson was 16-years-old when he forced his way into the Kensington home of Sir Gareth Rhys Williams, who was asleep upstairs with his wife and three young children.
Sir Gareth discovered the break-in the following morning, finding his and wife Hannah’s laptops had gone along with an iPad and items of sentimental value including silver tea and coffee pots and a sugar shaker.
The raid, in August 2013, remained unsolved for years until a fingerprint left at the scene was analysed and matched with Walsh-Hutson. He was arrested at Gatwick Airport in April this year and has now confessed to the burglary.
Sir Gareth, a Baronet and son of a Conservative MP, was appointed as the government’s Chief Commercial Officer in 2016 after a successful career as a CEO in the private sector.
At Isleworth crown court, Walsh-Hutson, now 26, was sentenced to a six-month community order with 15 days of rehabilitation, a thinking skills course, and GPS monitoring.
“This case is slightly unusual”, said Judge Hannah Duncan. “The reason it has taken so long to come to court is your fingerprint was left on a window but it wasn’t until early this year that a comparison could be made.
“The kitchen was broken into, a sash window was forced open, and you climbed in. You stole a laptop, an iPad, and three pieces of silver valued at £4,300 – your intention clearly being to obtain items which were easy to sell on and raise easy money.
“This was an opportunistic offence – there’s no evidence you had gone equipped to break into someone’s home.
“The fact it is a kitchen window looking out on to a road, covered by foliage, suggests you were walking past and took the opportunity to force the window open.”
The court heard Sir Gareth’s eldest son, then 12-year-old, was most affected by the break-in, suffering nervousness about being at home alone that has persisted into adulthood.
In a statement, Sir Gareth said the burglar was prevented from venturing further into the house as their kitchen door is bolted shut at night.
“The lower part of the sash window was open”, he said of the 7am discovery. “It made me realise we had a break-in overnight, because we never open these windows and it’s bolted shut.”
The court heard Walsh-Hutson, a former drug addict now living in Horsham in West Sussex, had minor convictions as a youth from 2010 and 2013, and he was given a suspended prison sentence as an adult in February 2021 for an attempted burglary of top graphic design studio Pentagram in Notting Hill.
He admitted burglary and was ordered to attend 19 thinking skills sessions, 15 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement, and be under GPS monitoring for six months.
