Serial burglar guilty of £1m raid on Cowell home as family slept
A SERIAL offender has been found guilty of an almost £1 million raid on Simon Cowell’s home as the music mogul and his family slept and his security guard used the toilet.
Darren February broke into the five-bed property in the well-to-do area of Holland Park, west London, through a patio door and stole jewellery and two passports.
Just 10 days after he burgled The X Factor supremo’s home on December 4, 2015, February hit 52-year-old father and motorcyclist Kenneth Baldwin with a car and killed him.
The 33-year-old was jailed last year for eight-and-a-half years for causing death by dangerous driving not far from Cowell’s home.
February had already been convicted of 37 burglaries, repeatedly targeting the wealthy areas of Kensington and Bayswater which provided “rich pickings”, prosecutor Denis Barry said.
When he broke into Cowell’s house he was on licence for other burglaries and public order offences.
He has committed 58 offences spanning two decades, and was first convicted aged just 12.
The jury of nine men and three women took less than an hour to find him guilty at Isleworth Crown Court following a four-day trial.
He shook his head in disagreement as the verdict was returned.
His DNA was found on gloves dropped on his escape from the scene, and on a handprint on a wall at the property.
February was identified by a security worker as he fled, and later by police who were aware of his “prolific” sprees on previous occasions.
It emerged that Cowell’s security worker Simon Williams concluded he must have been using the bathroom when the burglary took place.
One of the stolen passports was dropped nearby and recovered that morning, while another was found at a recycling facility in Wandsworth. Some jewellery was recovered at the scene but it is understood most of it was not returned.
February will be sentenced at the same court tomorrow morning.