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Muswell Hill man found guilty of burgling Kensal Rise home of Rita Ora
Guilty: Charaf El Moudden - Credit: Archant
A burglar who targeted pop star Rita Ora has been found guilty of a raid worth more than £200,000 on her Kensal Rise home.
Rita Ora home in Kensal Rise was burgled (pic: PA) - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
Charaf Elmoudden, 26, from Muswell Hill, went to the singer’s four-bedroom house on November 28 last year and made off with a stash of expensive shoes, phones, computers and a designer doggy bag.
The former X Factor judge called the police and said she would “f*** up” the burglar after he woke her sister Elena up rifling through her bedroom.
Elmoudden has a number of previous convictions including for trying to sell pictures of the body of a dead Harry Potter actor.
Miss Ora and her sister were asleep upstairs at the semi-detached home they share with their parents when two men broke in to the three-storey house.
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Elmoudden and an accomplice made off with designer goods and electronics which included iPhones, Apple Mac computers, a Fifty Shades Of Grey handbag worth 4,000 US dollars (£2,682) and a Louis Vuitton doggy bag.
He was picked out in a line-up by Elena, three months after the burglary. Elena told the jury she confronted an intruder and he “looked dead in my eyes”.
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Singer Miss Ora gave evidence from behind a screen during the trial and the court was also played a frantic 999 call from the star.
In it she sobbed “I don’t have a knife” and threatened to kill the thieves.
She was heard screaming “Don’t you f****** come up these stairs. I will f*** you up - you f****** hear me?” after locking herself in her room with her sister.
Prosecutor Mark Kimsey said her house was deliberately chosen by the thieves because they knew she lived there.
She was not present in court for the verdict but when she previously attended to give evidence she was escorted from the courtroom before putting on a pair of large sunglasses in the foyer and leaving through a back entrance.
Unemployed Elmoudden was found guilty after six hours and 51 minutes of jury deliberation.
A woman in the public gallery shouted: “You have left my kids without a dad,” before storming out.
Elmoudden had denied being involved in the burglary but police discovered £3,500 in cash “hidden” in an envelope in a sofa bed at his home on Sydney Road, Muswell Hill, north London, at the time of his arrest in January.
As a teenager in December 2006 he pleaded guilty to forcing entry to a Costcutter shop and stealing property from within.
Five years later he admitted breaking into a house in north-west London and stealing goods including jewellery, watches, foreign currency and a BMW with a total value of around £75,000.
He also pleaded guilty in 2010 to handling stolen goods in relation to photographs of murdered Rob Knox, who played Marcus Belby in Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince, after he was stabbed outside a bar in Sidcup, south east London, in May 2008.
Mr Kimsey previously said the previous conviction showed Elmoudden had an interest in media personalities.
Judge Alan Greenwood adjourned the case until 2pm.
