A Somerset man appeared ?disguised? in Magistrates? Court yesterday after he was allegedly caught inside the home of an apparently irate homeowner.

Facing Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves with cuts and bruises, including a black right eye, Steven James O?Neil pleaded not guilty to breaking into a Sandys home on Saturday.

?That?s his natural face?? Mr. Greaves asked. Crown counsel Cindy Clarke replied she understood the homeowner caught the 19-year old O?Neil ?red-handed?.

?He?s disguised,? said Mr. Greaves.

However O?Neil?s lawyer, Ed Bailey, said his client was the victim, not the homeowner.

O?Neil had not been armed with ?housebreaking equipment?, such as a screwdriver, he said, and had stopped in the house only to use the phone after his bike broke down.

Mr. Greaves remanded O?Neil, from Malabar Close in Sandys, into custody for trial on April 27.