Mark Cavendish has stated he nonetheless will get flashbacks from a “horrific” armed theft at his circle of relatives house in Essex in past due 2021.
The now retired sprinter had a zombie knife held as much as his throat all the way through the raid, through which masked thieves stole two watches price £700,00, in addition to a Louis Vuitton suitcase, telephones and a secure.
3 of the 4 intruders have since gained prison sentences of between 12 and 15 years for his or her roles within the crime. A fourth guy remains to be out for arrest.
Talking concerning the incident in an interview with The Telegraph, Cavendish stated he felt “helpless” underneath the threats.
“I get flashbacks all the time. To have a zombie knife held up to your throat in front of your kid?” he stated. “It was horrific.”
“You think about what you could have done [differently]. Everyone thinks, ‘I’d fight.’ And of course I was swinging at first. But I tell you, anybody gets a knife held to their neck, you can’t do anything. Like, my wife’s there, my kid. I was helpless to do anything.”
The theft happened within the early hours of the morning of 21 November 2021, when Cavendish was once asleep together with his spouse Peta and their three-year-old son Casper. All through some of the thieves’ trials, the courtroom heard a commentary from Peta through which she stated her husband was once instructed: “Do you want me to stab you in front of your kid?”
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The sprinter has now stated he considers himself “lucky because I was there”.
“I’m happier I was there than if it happened to Peta and the kids when I was away. I would never have forgiven myself,” he stated.
Cavendish added that the thieves had been on the lookout for a particular Richard Mille watch, price round £2 million, which he was once loaned for an award rite, however had already returned.
After the intruders’ courtroom sentencing, held all over 2023, Peta Cavendish stated that the crime “turned a loving family home into a constant reminder of threat and fear”.
“No family should ever have to go through what we went through,” she said. “However it doesn’t matter what the sentence was once, any guardian will perceive, I am certain, that no time in jail may just make up for what they did to us that night time.”
Essex Police are nonetheless looking for a fourth guy, George Goddard, in connection to the theft.