The man who built a confinement room in an abandoned farmhouse did so with the intention of kidnapping a woman who had provided support to his ex-wife, a court has heard.

Robert Edwin White insisted upon his arrest in early 2012 he never intended to hurt or kill anyone, and that no one but himself had ever been in the dungeon he constructed in the basement of a Pickering farmhouse, according to facts read into the record Wednesday.

White, 44, pleaded guilty to a charge of break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence. He remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing.

White was arrested by Durham police in February, months after the discovery of the confinement room in a house slated for demolition on the Pickering airport lands. The room, discovered by a worker last November, was heavily reinforced and insulated, with double-paned windows and an eight-centimetre door made of multiple sheets of plywood, prosecutor Dave Slessor told Ontario Court Justice Mary Teresa Devlin.

There was a bench in the newly painted room and chains hung from the ceiling. The door was bolted from the outside with tire irons, court heard.

“It can’t be opened from the inside once it’s bolted from the outside,” Slessor said. “There would be no getting out.”

Security workers patrolling the area had written down the licence plate number of White’s Mercedes-Benz, which had been seen parked near the farmhouse on a couple of occasions.

He was arrested Feb. 13. He was also charged with attempted kidnapping, but that charge was withdrawn when he pleaded guilty to the break and enter charge.

Slessor said the investigation revealed the intended kidnapping target was a woman who had assisted White’s ex-wife emotionally and financially after her separation from him.

Defence lawyer Paul Affleck said White concurred with the facts read into the record, but that he insisted he never intended to demand a ransom for his kidnapping target.

The Concession 7 farmhouse was destroyed by a deliberately-set fire last January. There’s no evidence linking White to that occurrence, police have said.