Published: 01 August, 2013
by ALICE HUTTON

GUARDIAN journalists believed a heroin addict who was later convicted of breaking into their building to steal items and use its toilets to take drugs was carrying out “hostile reconnaissance” over negative editorial coverage, a court heard.

Clayton Earlington tailgated staff through security barriers at the newspaper’s headquarters at York Way, King’s Cross, wandered past dozens of employees, a conference room, and twice approached editor Alan Rusbridger’s office, before taking Class A substances in toilets nearby, Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court was told on Friday.

Prosecutor Hywel Ebsworth described how the 49-year-old successfully entered the building twice in six weeks after looking for somewhere “safe” to take illegal drugs before being arrested by police on his third attempt in June.

The father of one was charged with burglary with intent to steal. He denied the charges.

Emma Hayfield, defending, told Deputy District Judge Timothy King that the staff who reported Earlington did not at first believe he was a thief.

“It was initially thought that he was there as part of a hostile reconnaissance as a result of certain editorial being published by the Guardian,” she said. “That element of the intent to burgle cannot be proved. He did not have the intent to steal anything.”

Earlington, of North Road, Islington, cried in the witness box and insisted he was “only there to take drugs”.

CCTV footage showed him walking into the Guardian building, following staff through security barriers and walking up stairs past groups of employees, before leaving five minutes later, empty-handed.

A statement from the editor’s personal assistant read to the court described how a man wearing a leather jacket, looking “warm and sweaty” as well as “dazed”, went up to Mr Rusbridger’s office before saying he was lost and walking off.

Earlington, who has a 20-year problem with Class A drugs and 38 previous convictions, said he had chosen the Guardian after buying drugs in King’s Cross and walking the streets “desperate” to find somewhere to use in private.

“Three to four weeks before that I had used the Guardian toilets – I had asked a guard and he had let me in,” he said.

“So I went back. This time there was no guard there so I tailgated some people. I had been there  before but I couldn’t remember where the toilet was.

“At the time my state of mind was not good, I was ‘clucking’. That was why I didn’t want to talk to anyone or ask anyone where it was.

“But I found the toilet eventually. I ‘chased the dragon’, I burnt it on a piece of foil. I used the drugs, basically. And I went back out.

"That is all. I didn’t want to steal nothing, it was just to use the drugs. I left and I went back home.”

He continued: “Sir, your honour, I know that was a really stupid thing to do, sir.

“When you are on drugs, you just don’t think clearly.

“I’m not trying to say it is right. I just felt desperate for a safe place.”

Deputy District Judge King found him guilty of burglary.

He said: “Entering a building like the Guardian, where there were security barriers, there was significant risk to him of being stopped and police being called.

“The fact he tailgates through the barriers, he does not ask for directions to the toilet.

“The fact that he continues to look around. I’m satisfied his intention was to steal.”

Mr Earlington will be sentenced next month.