Skip to content

Mark Cavendish family 'terrorised' in Essex robbery, trial told

Elizabeth Cook/PA Media Mark Cavendish giving evidence at Chelmsford Crown CourtElizabeth Cook/PA Media
Mark Cavendish remembered his wife running into their bedroom, with "figures really close behind her"

Elite cyclist Mark Cavendish and his wife Peta were "terrorised in their own home" by balaclava-clad raiders wielding knives, a court has been told.

Prosecutors have said the athlete was threatened at knifepoint in front of his three-year-old son at the house in Ongar, Essex, in November 2021.

Two men are on trial and each deny two counts of robbery.

Closing his case, prosecutor Edward Renvoize said the "professionalism of the job is beyond question".

"[The case is] quite simply about a family being terrorised in their own home," he added.

Essex Police Mark Cavendish's watchEssex Police
Giving evidence earlier in the trial, Peta Cavendish said the robbers were "very specific" about a watch, before taking her husband's Richard Mille timepiece from a windowsill
Essex Police Peta Cavendish watchEssex Police
Peta Cavendish said her watch, which suspects did not initially notice, was taken from her bedside table

The trial at Chelmsford Crown Court has been told the men made off with Richard Mille watches, valued at £400,000 and £300,000, as well as phones and a Louis Vuitton suitcase.

Mr Renvoize said the intruders "appeared not to have got the watch they wanted" but "did make off with what they could".

Romario Henry, 31, of Bell Green, Lewisham, south-east London, and Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, of Flaxman Road, Camberwell, south London, deny two counts of robbery.

Ali Sesay, 28, of Holding Street, Rainham, Kent, has already admitted two counts of robbery.

Essex Police A jury handout in the Mark Cavendish robbery trialEssex Police
Prosecutor Edward Renvoize said none of the suspects visible on CCTV displayed signs of an injury
Elizabeth Cook/PA Media Romario Henry, 31 (left) and Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, appearing at Chelmsford Crown CourtElizabeth Cook/PA Media
Romario Henry, 31 (left) and Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, both deny two counts of robbery

The prosecutor cast doubt on Wednesday over Mr Okorosobo's claim he was not at the house in Ongar in the early hours of 27 November, despite his mobile phone connecting to cell masts in the area.

Mr Henry admitted he was at the scene in the Mercedes Benz car, but was not aware of a robbery taking place having been "out of it" and "so messed up" after taking drugs.

The prosecutor questioned why Sesay would have "agreed to take inebriated Mr Henry along for the ride".

Shahid Rashid, defending for Mr Okorosobo, suggested that none of the four individuals seen on CCTV outside the home could be his client because they did not display the "impediment he suffers from".

Mr Okorosobo previously told jurors he struggled to walk after being stabbed in the leg in September 2021.

Getty Images Peta and Mark CavendishGetty Images
Peta Cavendish (pictured with Mark Cavendish) told jurors, earlier in the trial, the experience was "everyone's worst nightmare"

Archangelo Power, counsel for Mr Henry, said that his client's "mere presence alone [at the scene] does not amount to guilt".

Judge David Turner KC sent the jury home for the day and said he would be summing up the trial evidence on Thursday before sending jurors out to deliberate their verdicts.

The trial has heard that a fourth and fifth suspect, Jo Jobson and George Goddard, remained at large.

presentational grey line

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]