Simon Cowell: I bought a baseball bat to protect my London mansion after break-in

Simon Cowell has admitted he still has nightmares about a burglary at his west London mansion and has bought a baseball bat to protect his family.

The music mogul's Holland Park home was broken into and nearly £1 million of jewellery was taken in December 2015 while he, his partner Lauren Silverman and their son Eric, now three,

Mr Cowell told The Daily Mail that he had spent £500,000 on upgrading his home security since the incident and that some of the measures he had taken were not exactly hi-tech.

The burglar, Darren February, was sentenced in March to eight years for the raid and was already serving time for knocking down and killing a motorcyclist days after the break-in.

Just 10 days after the break-in, February knocked down and killed 52-year-old Kenneth Baldwin with his car while racing at speeds of up to 60mph through Holland Park.

Mr Cowell told the paper: "Now that this guy is in prison, there is an incredible sense of relief.

"The whole experience has been pretty traumatising and not something I ever want to go through again.

"I've obviously had to massively increase my personal security at home with every mod-con you can imagine, and all this stuff, including a panic room.

"My house basically looks like something out of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

"We called in these guys and one of the things they suggested was a baseball bat. I'm not even joking. So I literally have a baseball bat ready to go if anyone comes in."

The 57-year-old added: "What happened was utterly terrifying.

"It is almost irrelevant what he took - that is all just stuff. Jewellery, passports, none of that really matters.

"What really got to me though was that this guy was walking about in my house when Eric was fast asleep - it doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened if he had gone into his bedroom, and found him.

"It is terrifying, and still gives me nightmares."