Mark Cavendish and wife Peta open up on 'immensely difficult' recovery from robbery trauma

Cyclist Mark Cavendish and his wife Peta have opened up about their family's "immensely difficult" journey to overcome the trauma of being robbed at knifepoint.

They were speaking after a second man was found guilty of robbery at their home in Ongar in Essex on 27 November 2021.

One, Ali Sesay, of Windsor Road, Croydon, had already admitted his role in the 2.30am raid after his DNA was found on a phone at the scene.

On Monday, a second man, 31-year-old Romario Henry of Lewisham in south-east London, was found guilty of two counts of robbery by a jury's majority verdict at Chelmsford Crown Court.

His co-defendant, Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, of Flaxman Road, Camberwell, south London, was cleared by the jury of the same two charges.

In a statement released through police after the verdicts had been delivered, Mr and Mrs Cavendish said: “Reliving our family’s experience from that night in November 2021 has been an incredibly difficult experience.

"What happened that night is something that no family should ever have to go through.

“Although nothing can ever erase what our family went through, there is now some comfort that two men who broke into our family home and stole from us, assaulted Mark and terrified our children are now convicted and will be facing what we hope will be an appropriate sentence for their actions and we hope moves some steps in preventing this horror happening to another innocent family."

They said they were trying to put the traumatic episode behind them, and thanked the Essex Police detectives who had worked on the case.

“We have worked and continue to work incredibly hard as a family to move on from that night as best we can, to make it a distant memory.

"It has been immensely difficult and in fact there have been times when it has felt impossible, but we will not let this event and these men’s actions define our family.

“We are moving forward together as a family."

Henry and Sesay will be sentenced on 7 February.

The court heard that during the raid, a Rambo-style hunting knife was held to the throat of Cavendish, who was recovering from a serious racing crash he had suffered just days earlier.

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