A 23-year-old man has been found guilty of stealing Spongebob the squirrel monkey from Chessington World of Adventures after refusing to give the names of the other people involved.

The jury took less than half an hour to return a guilty verdict on Marlon Brown of Bowater Close, Brixton.

Brown had denied stealing Spongebob but said he was with a group of around seven friends who broke into the monkey enclosure at Chessington on July 16 last year.

He told the court he had just been "following the crowd" when he and his friends climbed over the gate into the zoo area of the park at around 5.30pm after spending the day on the rides.

Prosecution counsel Michael Collis said the group forced open some of the mesh panels in the fence surrounding the squirrel monkey enclosure, entered the cage and picked up Spongebob, who had been hand-reared and was used to human contact. The monkey was then put in Brown's rucksack.

The group then left the park and drove back to Brixton with Spongebob in the bag, and dropped Mr Brown off at his home.

Three days after the theft, Spongebob was handed into Brixton police station by an unknown man who claimed to have found the monkey in a playground on the Notre Dame estate in Clapham.

Brown was traced by police after DNA tests were carried out on spots of blood found in the monkey enclosure after brown was bitten on the thumb as he bent down to pick up his keys.

Spongebob is a Bolivian Squirrel Monkey who was hand-reared in South Africa and arrived at Chessington in April 2006 as part of a breeding programme. The court heard that the monkey would have been worth around £2,000 on the black market.

He was returned to Chessington World of Adventures, but was rejected by the rest of his troop and forced to move to Battersea Park Zoo.

Brown, who was wearing baggy blue jeans, white trainers and a white top, told the court he had urged his friends to put Spongebob back and said he never had the monkey in his possession. He has so far refused to tell police who else was involved in the theft because he was worried his mother and sister, who both live in Brixton, would be targeted in revenge.

His defence counsel said: "They acted like a pack believing it all to be a bit of a joke. Marlon Brown was part of the pack."

"He's the one that prophetically said someone's going to get into trouble for this. That is the reason why he's here because he wouldn't give the names of the others."

Sonia Freeman, head of mammals at Chessington Zoo, welcomed today's verdict.

She said: "We are delighted with the outcome of this case and look forward to hearing about the sentencing next week."

"SpongeBob was brought to Chessington as part of an endangered species breeding programme, and we had high hopes for his breeding success. The futile actions of Mr Brown and his friends have had ongoing serious consequences not only for poor SpongeBob, but also for the rest of the group and we are very happy that Mr Brown has been found guilty of being so cruel and irresponsible."

Brown is due back in court on March 29 for sentencing.

To read more about SpongeBob's adventures at his new home in his very own Spongeblog click here.