Olympic gold medal burglar jailed

James Cracknell won gold medals at the Sydney and Athens Games

A burglar who broke into the home of Olympic rowing star James Cracknell and stole two of his gold medals has been jailed for three years.

Mark Murphy, 30, of Hammersmith, west London, stole the medals and items worth £24,000 in March.

A neighbour's dog later found the medals dumped in bushes a few streets away in Chiswick, west London.

Sentencing Murphy at Isleworth Crown Court, the judge said the theft had a "devastating effect" on Mr Cracknell.

The medals had been awarded to Cracknell for his success in the coxless fours in Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years later.

You must have realised when you stole them you were taking irreplaceable items Judge Jonathan Lowen

Judge Jonathan Lowen said: "There is no evidence that you were aware of the identity of the occupants of that house when you entered it.

"You must have realised when you stole them you were taking irreplaceable items belonging to their owner whoever that may have been."

Murphy, who denied the burglary and said he was looking after his sick mother that night, has previous convictions for robbery, burglary, attempted burglary, theft, criminal damage and driving offences.

He was out of prison on licence when he committed the burglary after being released from an 18-month sentence for car theft and criminal damage.

When he was arrested he was wearing a £500 limited edition watch by Adidas, presented to Cracknell at one of the Olympic Games.

He claimed he had bought it for £30 from a stranger at a pub.

The judge told him: "The fact that some of those precious items were later found abandoned, not returned by you, shows how callous you must have been."