A REPEAT offender made a desperate plea to authorities to sort out housing for prisoners as he was sent back to jail.

A court heard homeless Colin Lee Caffary held a knife to a woman after begging police officers to send him back to prison just 10 days after his release because he had ‘nowhere else to go’.

Caffary has a long list of offending and his recent release from prison was the third time without anywhere to go, the court heard.

His case has been described as ‘appalling’ by a prison charity which has criticised the lack of support for offenders.

Caffary, who has been in Weymouth since 1982, has written to South Dorset MP Richard Drax and Prime Minister David Cameron asking for support.

Mr Drax said he recognised there was a lack of support for ex-offenders when they leave prison.

Caffary, 49, was sentenced to two years in prison when he appeared at Dorchester Crown Court for a charge of affray after he admitted holding a kitchen knife to a woman after asking a police officer, ‘Can you arrest me now?’ The court heard how police officers attended a flat in Holland Road in Weymouth on July 24 this year after receiving a report of a domestic dispute.

Prosecutor Carolyn Branford-Wood said Caffary, of no fixed abode, answered the door and said to police officers, ‘Please, I want to go back to prison’.

She said that Caffary left the flat but about an hour later there was a further request for assistance from the address.

Miss Branford-Wood said: “PC Adams could see Mr Caffary through the ground floor flat window standing over a female occupant holding a kitchen knife.

“He said, ‘see I’m going to stab her’.”

The court heard how once a police officer gained entry, Caffary put the knife down before putting out his wrists to be arrested.

In mitigation, Timothy Shorter said: “His recent release was the third time without any where to go.

“He had been trying to obtain accommodation while he had been serving his sentence.

Before sentencing, Judge Roger Jarvis said: “No matter what your intention known to yourself was, as far as your victim was concerned it must have been utterly terrifying.”