A widower has pleaded for the stolen memories of his wife to be returned.

Suffering two burglaries in as many weeks was hard enough for Martin Ong but losing video footage of the last months spent with his wife has left him distraught.

Jo Ong, 54, died within a week of being diagnosed with an immune system disease in January 2000.

Martin and Jo were married for 25 years and the footage of holidays in Paris, Majorca and Hong Kong and at Christmas parties was Martin's most prized possession.

Despite a number of expensive items being stolen from his house, in Wiston, near Steyning, he has only appealed for the tapes to be returned.

Mr Ong, 53, said: "My wife had three children by her first marriage.

"One of her daughters lives in Malawi and has two children who were born since Jo died. Those children will never know their grandmother but the tapes could have given an impression of who she was and how she behaved.

"It's a part of what that person was and it's a nice thing to have - it's useless to anyone else."

The burglars disabled an alarm system at his detached house and broke in through a conservatory window on March 6 and March 20.

Mr Ong, who works for BAA, said: "You always have memories in your mind. What is nice about videos of times you shared is not just the visual images, it is the voices.

"When people go, you remember their faces but you do not always remember their voice and the things they said.

"I would dearly love to have the tapes back. The rest of what they stole pales into insignificance."

DC June Francis, of Horsham District CID, urged any witnesses or anyone with information about the burglaries to ring her at Horsham police station on 0845 6070999.