Julia Roberts upgraded the security system at her Malibu mansion after a "crazed stalker" tried to break-in.

A neighbour, who witnessed the incident, told gossip website RadarOnline.com: "By the time I got there, the man was just crawling out of the cactus bush outside her property and the security guards were talking to the police. One of them was boasting saying: 'I'm an ex-Marine and I just picked him up and threw him head first in the cactus.'

"The security told me that it was some crazed stalker guy. He was a brave man for even trying to get in her place, as it's swarming with her detail and we have the Sheriff's Department come round every half an hour checking the street.

"The police didn't bother to try and catch him. They talked to the security then left."

Following the incident, Julia, who lives in the property with her husband Daniel Moder, nine-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus and six-year-old son Henry, installed more cameras around the property and hired a new guard to prevent other unwanted visitors from getting close to her family.

The neighbour said: "Since that incident, she's had a guy in a blacked out car sat at the end of the cul-de-sac monitoring the comings and goings of the road. She's got cameras everywhere over her property, including two inside her gate. She's obviously determined for this not to happen again."