SYDNEY: An Australian museum worker who stole thousands of exhibits, including a stuffed lion and a rare dolphin skeleton, was jailed for seven years on Friday.

A Sydney court was told Henk van Leeuwen stole exhibits while working for the Australian Museum from 1996 to 2003 as a pest controller and skeleton moulder. Anti-corruption officers raided the homes of van Leeuwen and two of his associates in 2003, finding more than 2,000 items from Australia's oldest natural history museum hidden in sheds, fridges and freezers.

They included a stuffed lion acquired by the museum in 1911, the skeletal remains of a Ganges river dolphin, leopard and jaguar skins, as well as numerous skulls, skeletons and animal specimens preserved in formaldehyde.

An earlier court hearing was told the combined value of the hoard totalled one million dollars (US$835,000), with the lion alone worth 50,000.

Van Leeuwen, 50, pleaded guilty to 15 counts of stealing. Judge Peter Berman rejected van Leeuwen's defence that he took the items because he wanted to protect them.—AFP