Rita Ora burglar facing jail

A burglar who ransacked Rita Ora’s home of £200,000 worth of jewellery and designer clothes as the terrified popstar cowered in an upstairs bedroom with her sister is facing jail.

The 25-year-old former ‘X Factor’ judge and her sister, Elena, were both asleep when two men broke into the £1.2million three-storey house in Kensal Rise, northwest London.

Charaf Elmoudden, 26, and an unknown accomplice, made off with dozens of pairs of designer shoes, diamond earrings and expensive electronic goods from the four-bedroom house.

Ora lost items including a pair of Mac Pro laptops, two iPhone 6s, vintage Chanel and Celine handbags, eight pairs of Louis Vuitton shoes and a number of vintage t-shirts.

The burglar woke Ora as he helped himself to items from a dressing room table in her sister’s room.

Elmoudden claimed he was the victim of mistaken identity and denied being at the six-bedroom house in Trevelyan Gardens, Kensal Rise, containing a ‘glam room’ where Ora gets changed.

But he was convicted of burglary at Harrow Crown Court and now faces a lengthy prison term.

Elmoudden was jailed for 15 months back in 2010 after admitting trying to flog nine post mortem photos of murdered Harry Potter actor Rob Knox.

The photos of the 18-year-old’s body were believed to have been taken in the morgue and were stolen after the trial of his killer, Karl Bishop.

The Moroccan, who has lived in the UK since he was four, then survived a deportation appeal after his release in August of that year arising from his conviction.

He tasted freedom for just two months before he was arrested again in January 2011 for a string of burglaries he committed as part of a masked gang to pay off drug debts.

Giving evidence Ora said she had gone to bed at 2.30am last November 28 after staying up to watch a movie with a friend.

She described the moment she was awoken by the terrified screams of her sister Elena.

‘I went to sleep and I was woken up by a scream, I’m not quite sure of the exact time but I think it was around 5.30am,’ she said.

‘I was kind of half-asleep and then I woke up and I heard just my sister running up the stairs.

‘I opened the door and I just said ‘Elena’ and she just ran up the stairs, and then she just jumped on my bed and just started screaming.’

Ora broke down as jurors were played the dramatic 999 call she made during the raid.

She told the emergency operator: ‘I need you to come to the house right now, there’s a burglary in my house.

‘I have just locked myself in my room, my sister saw him in my room. Can you just send them right now?

‘How long are you gonna be?’

Ora could be heard audibly gasping and panicked: ‘What do I do, what do I do, oh my God.’

Asked her name, she replied: ‘Rita Ora, R-I-T-A O-R-A.’

In a brave attempt to scare the burglar away, Ora turned away from the phone and screamed: ‘Don’t you f*cking come up these stairs. I will f*ck you up.’

She recalled how she went through CCTV footage of the burglary from the cameras at her six-bedroom home.

‘We froze and rewound and we froze and rewound and I zoomed in and I did everything I could remember to do,’ said Ora.

She said the burglar stole ‘a lot of valuable items’, adding: ‘I couldn’t give you a specific figure but it was around six figures.’

The intruders fled and police arrived to find the two ‘petrified’ sisters locked in Rita’s bedroom on the top floor.

Jurors were told that Elena later picked Elmoudden out at an identity parade and said: ‘He specifically looked at me in my face, I wouldn’t forget that face, ever.’

Elena said she was ‘100 per cent’ sure it was Elmoudden, adding: ‘I remember his eyes.’

Officers found 13 pairs of trainers and £3,500 cash in a white envelope stuffed behind the back cushion of his sofa.

The thief claimed the cash was an insurance payout from a car accident, and handed the police a letter said to be from his solicitors.

He insisted he was at home with his partner watching Breaking Bad on NetFlix on the night of the break-in.

‘I volunteered for an ID parade and I thought that would be the end of it,’ Elmoudden said.

‘I felt that would exonerate me.’

Elmoudden was caged for four years in 2011 after he and others made off with £25,000 worth of jewellery and accessories along with $3,000 cash from an address in Golders Green.

CCTV at the house caught Elmoudden climbing into the homeowner’s BMX X5 and was later caught by police fleeing from the vehicle.

Officers discovered £3,000 cash on him as well as loot from two other raids and a key to a second BMW that was never recovered.

‘I done my time and I learned my lesson,’ he told jurors.

‘I have got three children – I would never risk losing them and leaving them without a father for the sake of money.’

Today (Weds) a jury of six men and six women returned majority verdicts of 10 – 2 of guilty after almost seven hours’ deliberating the single charge of burglary.

Judge Alan Greenwood thanked the jury for their work on the case and adjourned the trial until after lunch for applications regarding sentence.

Rushing from the public gallery in tears following the verdict, Elmoudden’s ex-partner sobbed: ‘You’ve left my kids without a dad.’

Elmoudden, of Syndey Road, Muswell Hill, north London, denied a single count of burglary but was convicted by the jury.

The hearing continues this afternoon with the judge likely to put back sentence to a later date.