EastEnders star turns detective to catch raider

Eastenders star Scott Maslen today told how he turned detective to help catch a burglar who raided his home.

The actor, who plays a former detective in the BBC soap opera and also appeared in ITV police drama The Bill, told the Standard how he and his wife Estelle tracked down the man who terrified their family.

The couple and their 10-year-old son Zak were asleep in their £1.2million Primrose Hill home in June when serial burglar Thomas O'Connor, 22, broke in through an upstairs window and ransacked the property looking for valuables.

Maslen, 40, told how he came downstairs the following morning to find both their iPhones and a laptop, which contained tracks by his singer-songwriter wife, had been taken along with her handbag.

He said: "My wife had the foresight to put a tracker on our phone, which is how we managed to trace our gear. We lost jackets and clothes and money but it was the phones and computer that we were really worried about.

"When we got over the shock, my wife had a moment when she said the phone has got a tracker. We got on Google Earth and traced the location and called the police."

O'Connor was yesterday sentenced at Blackfriars crown court to 22 months but will serve seven months because of time already spent in custody. He grinned as he was led to the cells.

The Woolwich-born actor, a Strictly Come Dancing semi-finalist last year, said his family home was burgled four times when he was growing up, but the latest experience had been the most troubling and he was now wary of leaving his wife and son at home alone. He said: "It wasn't as harrowing for me as it was for my wife. It really affects you psychologically when you don't feel safe in your own home.

He added: "We're getting cameras put in. I don't want to alienate myself, but you have to protect you and yours. The police did a remarkable job. They reacted very quickly and kept us informed all along."

In the same month that he burgled the Maslens, O'Connor also broke into the home of businesswoman Marie-Cecile Watt while she was out shopping.