'I had a zombie knife held up to my throat' - Mark Cavendish opens up about 'horrific' armed robbery

Mark Cavendish has said he still gets flashbacks from a “horrific” armed robbery at his family home in Essex in late 2021.

The now retired sprinter had a zombie knife held up to his throat during the raid, in which masked thieves stole two watches worth £700,00, as well as a Louis Vuitton suitcase, phones and a safe.

Three of the four intruders have since received jail sentences of between 12 and 15 years for their roles in the crime. A fourth man is still out for arrest.

Speaking about the incident in an interview with The Telegraph, Cavendish said he felt “helpless” under the threats.

“I get flashbacks all the time. To have a zombie knife held up to your throat in front of your kid?” he said. “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 robbery took place in the early hours of the morning of 21 November 2021, when Cavendish was asleep with his wife Peta and their three-year-old son Casper. During one of the thieves’ trials, the court heard a statement from Peta in which she said her husband was told: “Do you want me to stab you in front of your kid?”

The sprinter has now said 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 said.

Cavendish added that the thieves were looking for a specific Richard Mille watch, worth around £2 million, which he was loaned for an award ceremony, but had already returned.

After the intruders’ court sentencing, held throughout 2023, Peta Cavendish said 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. "But no matter what the sentence was, any parent will understand, I'm sure, that no time in prison could make up for what they did to us that night."

Essex Police are still searching for a fourth man, George Goddard, in connection to the robbery.