Man guilty of Cracknell burglary

The medals are from the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games

A man has been found guilty of stealing two gold medals from the home of Olympic rower James Cracknell.

Mark Murphy, 30, of Hammersmith, west London, had denied burgling the sportsman's home, claiming he was caring for his sick mother on the day.

But a jury at Isleworth Crown Court took just over an hour to convict him.

Mr Murphy, already a convicted burglar, also stole thousands of pounds worth of electrical goods and jewellery from Mr Cracknell's flat in Chiswick in March.

Among his haul was Mr Cracknell's £8,000 diamond-studded wedding ring and his two gold medals from the Athens and Sydney Olympic Games.

Earlier, the prosecution alleged a footprint found outside Mr Cracknell's flat matched Mr Murphy's Nike trainer.

There is no outcome you can expect other than a pretty substantial sentence Judge Jonathan Lowen

They also said a watch he was wearing at the time of the arrest was a £500 limited edition piece presented to the rower after one of his Olympic successes.

Mr Murphy told the jury both pieces of evidence linking him to the raid were coincidental.

He said he bought the watch outside a pub and admitted one count of handling the watch.

In court, it emerged that Mr Murphy had previous convictions for robbery, burglary, attempted burglary, theft, criminal damage and driving offences from a 16-year criminal career.

At the time of the burglary, he had only been out of prison for several months.

Mr Murphy will be sentenced next month once pre-sentence reports have been prepared.

Judge Jonathan Lowen said: "There is no outcome you can expect other than a pretty substantial sentence."