Mark Cavendish's wife was pregnant during knifepoint raid at Olympic cyclist's family home

The wife of Mark Cavendish, the Olympic cyclist, has told how she was in the early stages of pregnancy when robbers subjected her family to a terrifying knifepoint raid.

Peta Cavendish fought back tears as she said the robbery at their “loving family 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 on Tuesday 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 violent late night raid in Ongar in November 2021, stole two Richard Mille watches, worth £700,000, among other items.

Speaking after sentencing, Mrs Cavendish insisted “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."

She continued: “What these men did is a world away from a robbery on the street.

“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 that my son said was, ‘I’ll protect her from the bad men if they ever came back’.

“No family should ever go through what we went through. I’m glad that two of the people have been sent to jail today for significant periods of time, but no matter what the sentence was, as any parent would understand, I’m sure, no time in prison could make up for what they did to us that night.”

The robbers threatened to stab the Olympian, who was recovering from having broken his ribs in a cycling crash in Belgium at a track event.

Mrs Cavendish told how 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.

She said she had heard a noise that woke her up before going downstairs to investigate.

She saw "men's figures in balaclavas, and they were running towards the bottom of the stairs", and she believed there were "between three and five" people.

She ran back to the bedroom, shouting "get back" or "get in" to her husband, who was unable to activate a panic alarm.

One of the intruders, she said, was holding a Rambo-style knife. Another dragged Mr Cavendish "from his feet and started punching him".

"One of them held a large black knife to his throat and they said, 'where's the watches?' and 'do you want me to stab you?"'

Mr Cavendish, who jointly holds the record for most stage wins in the Tour de France, was robbed of a watch, phone and safe. His wife was robbed of a watch, phone and suitcase.

Mrs Cavendish said that at the time her husband had been "out of hospital for four days, maybe" after the crash, which left him with three broken ribs and a tear to his left lung.

Jurors were told that two other men, Jo Jobson, from Plaistow, east London, and George Goddard, from Loughton in Essex, have been named as suspects in the robbery but have not been apprehended.

Jobson was 25 and Goddard 26 at the time of a police appeal last March.

Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, of Flaxman Road, Camberwell, south London, denied two counts of robbery and was cleared by jurors after a trial.