Mark Cavendish subjected to knifepoint robbery while at home with family, court told | Cycling News

Mark Cavendish and his wife were subjected to a knifepoint robbery, with one masked raider threatening to stab the athlete, the court has been told. A trial, expected to last two weeks, continues at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Mark Cavendish’s house was broken into in November 2021

Mark Cavendish and his wife were robbed at knifepoint while at home with the family, with one masked raider threatening to stab the athlete, Chelmsford Crown Court has been told.

The intruders stole two Richard Mille watches, worth £400,000 and £300,000, during the raid in the Ongar area of ​​Essex.

Opening the prosecution’s case on Tuesday, Edward Renvoize said the Olympic cyclist and his wife Peta were sleeping with their three-year-old child when they were woken by a noise in the early hours of November 27, 2021.

Mr Renvoize told the court that Cavendish thought the noise was “the sound of men and people walking around the house,” adding: “As Mr Cavendish was recovering from some injuries at the time Mrs Cavendish got up and went to investigate hear.

“His first thought was that maybe his older son had woken up and maybe there was something down there,”

Mrs. Cavendish said she heard a male voice that appeared to be coming from the kitchen area.

According to the lawyer, Mrs Cavendish saw “the figure of a man walking towards her and she ran back up the stairs to get her husband back to the bedroom.”

Mr Renvoize said he went back to his bedroom and Cavendish was looking for “the panic alarm he had”, adding that some of the raiders “jumped” on Cavendish and “started punching him and told him to turn off the alarm.”

“One produced a knife and threatened to stab him in front of his children. At this time there were three in the room and he began to ask where his watch was.

“Mrs Cavendish during this time was looking after her three-year-old son. She kept her three-year-old son under the covers to prevent him from seeing the ordeal in the bedroom,” the court heard.

Prosecutors said Mrs Cavendish “tried to use the phone to call the police”, but the intruder “grabbed the phone”.

“He confirmed that he did not call the police. The attackers then collected all the phones from the bedroom. He believed one of the men put the phone in his pocket,” said Mr Renvoize, adding that Mrs Cavendish “asked for the watch” and Mr Cavendish “pointed to the watch on the windowsill”.

The court heard how, after taking two watches and a Louis Vuitton case, “the attackers ordered the gate to be opened.”

“The robbers left. They took the phone, suitcase and watch,” said Mr. Renvoize.

The lawyer added that the car caught on CCTV passing the house before the attack “appeared to be on a reconnaissance mission” in the semi-rural location.

He said a vehicle stopped and turned off its lights and “four people” were seen on camera approaching the property.

He said that Cavendish’s Map phone was found outside the property, and that the “misplacing of the phone by one of the robbers” was “an error in a well-planned and carefully executed robbery.”

Mr Renvoize said police found DNA on the phone, which was linked to Ali Sesay, 28, of Holding Street, Rainham, east London.

Mr. Renvoize told the jury that Sesay had “pleaded guilty to the crime of robbery already.”

He said the police “were able to identify several other people who appeared to have communicated with Mr. Sesay’s phone.”

Romario Henry, 31, of Bell Green, Lewisham, south-east London and Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, of Flaxman Road, Camberwell, south London, both denied two counts of robbery and went on trial.

Mr Renvoize added that the jury would hear details about two other men during the trial: Jo Jobson and George Goddard.

The trial, which lasted about two weeks, continued.