Going into someone’s home with a weapon when their kids are there is disgusting.
We need to punish these people with 15 years in jail
STEVEN Gerrard yesterday called for tougher sentences for burglars after Brendan Rodgers’s wife and stepdaughter suffered a terrifying ordeal at their home.
Rangers manager Gerrard was shocked by news of the raid at his former Old Firm rival’s house, which came 12 years after his own home in Liverpool was targeted by a masked gang.
He spoke out as it emerged that Rodgers’s luxury house in Bearsden, near Glasgow, is now being guarded round the clock.
The ex-Celtic boss’s wife Charlotte activated a panic button as she and six-year-old Lola hid in a bathroom while intruders ransacked their home in the early hours of Wednesday.
The two burglars shone torches on the terrified pair, who were sleeping in the master bedroom. Charlotte and Lola escaped to the bathroom and locked themselves in.
Rodgers, 46, was in England at the time after leaving Parkhead for Leicester City last week.
He said yesterday it had been a “horrible experience” for “the girls” but added: “They’re fine and they’re safe, which is the most important thing.”
Rodgers said: “They heard voices and then they came into the bedroom. We have a panic button. They hid in the bathroom.
“They called me but I didn’t hear it and when I woke, I saw the missed call.
“I rang my friend Lord Willie Haughey and he was straight on to it.
“He made sure they were secure in the house, which I’m really grateful for.”
Former Parkhead director Haughey said: “Brendan phoned me at 7.50am on Wednesday to ask for help with security on his home.
“He knows I have a security team at my place and the company owner was brilliant, heading over straight away with a couple of members of his team to take care of Brendan’s family and their property.
“They will guard his home until they are no longer needed.
“It was a terrifying ordeal for a woman and a young kid to have to go through, absolutely shocking.”
Gerrard also hit out at the “disgusting” burglars when he was asked about the raid.
Violent burglars threatened to abduct Gerrard’s children, then aged three and one, in 2007 when they were home with his wife Alex while he was playing a Champions League tie for Liverpool in Marseille.
The 38-year-old Ibrox boss has fitted a hi-tech security system at his Merseyside home but reckons locking up robbers for longer would help reduce housebreakings. Martin Wilson was sentenced to seven years and four months for the raid on Gerrard’s home. Speaking at his club’s training ground, Gerrard’s voice cracked with emotion as he said: “It’s disgusting to go into someone else’s house – that they’ve built up as their private place. “The authorities are far too lenient with burglaries, in my opinion, and players, coaches and high-profile people are always going to get burgled unless there is a change higher up at government level. “If the authorities start saying that if you go to someone’s house, get caught trying to burgle it and are found guilty, you get 10 to 15 years in jail instead of three to five, it will stop. “In general, these people don’t deserve to be on the planet, never mind anything else, but until they make the punishment more than 10 years, this is going to continue. “It’s happened to me, it’s happened to hundreds of players and now it’s happened to Brendan. “For someone to make the
decision that they’re going into someone else’s house or property when there are children about, it’s just disgusting.
“And if you’re tooled up, if you’re weaponed up, then having made that decision, it should be punished by more than 10 years, in my opinion.
“The authorities have to do more and punish this more severely. Then it will stop.”
Gerrard referred to tougher sentencing guidelines that were introduced after a spate of acid attacks in the UK.
He said: “It’s the same with all kinds of different crimes. They won’t stop until the punishments are severe enough. For example, the acid attacks, the punishments were too lenient.
“If it goes up and all of a sudden they say, ‘The next person that does that gets 20 years in jail…’ How many of them have there been recently? Why do you think they have stopped?
“Shouldn’t it be the case where you wake up in the morning, go to work, or anywhere in your life, and you know your kids and family are safe?
“That’s my opinion on it. I know it’s strong but I know we’ll be talking about another incident like this, probably before the end of the season.
“I’ve been in touch with Brendan since he’s gone to Leicester but that was before this happened.
“It’s disgusting, and not just this isolated incident.”
Gerrard said he had stepped up security at his home since his wife’s burglary hell.
He added: “I’ve got a system in place when I am not at home – but I shouldn’t have to.
“You should be able to go to work morning, noon or night and be confident that your family are safe, especially if you have invested in a property.
“Everyone on the planet should be able to go to work knowing their family is safe when the door is locked. To have to put security in place in this day and age isn’t right.”
Meanwhile, Rodgers insisted his family’s experience would not sour his relationship with the people of Scotland.
Speaking in Leicester, he said: “It won’t detract from what I’m doing here or from the amazing time myself and my family have had in Scotland.
“The people were amazing and I’m not going to let this cloud any of that. We loved our time in Scotland and my daughter loved the school she was at.
“The intention was to find a house and move down here, and this probably makes that plan a bit quicker.”