Judge arrested after 'breaking into neighbour's home and stealing her underwear'

Robert Cicale 'was found to be in possession of soiled female undergarments', police say

Robert Cicale has been charged with burglary (Suffolk County Police Department)

A judge who allegedly broke into a neighbour’s home and stole a young woman’s underwear has been charged with burglary.

Robert Cicale a Republican district court judge in Suffolk County, New York, was found with pairs of soiled women’s underwear, police said.

A 23-year-old woman who had spotted a man matching his description when she was alone in her house and called her mother, who in turn phoned the police.

Minutes later officers caught Cicale a few streets away.

“He was found to be in possession of soiled female undergarments that we believe were either proceeds from today’s burglary or proceeds from a prior burglary at the same location,” Suffolk County acting police commissioner Stuart Cameron told NBC New York.

Mr Cameron said it was unclear if the 49-year-old, who lives across the road, knew the young woman.

“It turns my stomach, because you look at the judge and you expect a kind of figure to look up to," a neighbour told NBC, adding: “It’s disturbing.”

Cicale, a married father of three young children, was elected a judge in 2015, having previously served as a town attorney for East Islep.

“He’s a family man,” another neighbour told ABC 7. “He’s always outside playing basketball with his kids, he’s always jogging, he’s always friendly to everybody in the neighbourhood.”