Cavendish’s wife was pregnant during raid
THE wife of Mark Cavendish, the Olympic cyclist, has said she was in the early stages of pregnancy when robbers subjected her family to a knife-point raid.
Peta Todd fought back tears as she said the robbery at their home in Essex had a “massive impact on what should have been an incredibly happy time for us”.
The former model read her victim impact statement before speaking outside Chelmsford Crown Court where two of the gang were jailed for a total of 27 years.
Romario Henry, 31, from Lewisham, south-east London, had denied two counts of robbery but was found guilty following a trial. He was jailed yesterday for 15 years. Ali Sesay, 28, from Rainham in Kent, admitted two counts of robbery and was jailed for 12 years.
The men, who wore balaclavas during the late-night raid in Ongar, Essex, in November 2021, stole two Richard Mille watches, worth £700,000, among other things. Todd insisted that “this has never been about the items that were taken”, adding: “It was about the terror that our family felt. The impact continues on to this day for our family.
“At the time, I was in the early stages of pregnancy and the incident has had a massive impact on what should’ve been an incredibly happy time for us as a family.
“When I brought our newborn baby home the first thing my son said was ‘I’ll protect her from the bad men if they ever came back’.”
The robbers threatened to stab the Olympian, who was recovering from having broken his ribs during a cycling crash in Belgium at a track event.
Todd said she resorted to covering her three-year-old child, who was in a bed with her, with the duvet to prevent the child seeing what was happening.
Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, of Flaxman Road, Camberwell, south London, denied two counts of robbery and was cleared by jurors after a trial.