Third man guilty over knifepoint robbery of Olympic cyclist Mark Cavendish
A third man has been found guilty over a robbery which saw a knife-wielding balaclava-clad gang storm into the home of an Olympic cyclist.
Mark Cavendish and his wife, Peta, were threatened by the gang that burst into their home in Ongar, Essex, in November 2021.
The intruders took two timepieces worth £700,000 by luxury Swiss watch-maker Richard Mille, prosecutors told the court.
Jo Jobson, 27, was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court today.
He shook his head as the verdict was read.
Two men were jailed over the robbery in February, with Jobson voluntarily handing himself in some 18 months after police first named him a suspect.
After turning himself in at Chelmsford Police Station, Jobson, of no fixed address, denied two counts of robbery – one of having taken a watch, two phones and a safe from Mr Cavendish, and the other of stealing a watch, phone and a suitcase from Mrs Cavendish.
A jury returned a guilty verdict today following two days of deliberations.
Prosecutor Edward Renvoize told jurors that the gang broke into the Cavendish’s home at around 2.30am on November 27 while their children were in.
They ‘threatened the couple and meted out violence to Mark Cavendish in order to make him meet their demands’.
Mrs Cavendish said in a statement read to the court that an intruder told her husband: ‘Do you want me to stab you up in front of your kid? Show me the f****** safe.”
Renvoize also read a statement from Mr Cavendish, in which the athlete described the intruders ‘screaming where are the watches’ and ‘demanding to know where the safe and the money were’.
He described the robbery as a ‘well-orchestrated and executed, planned invasion of a home of well-known individuals with the intention of grabbing high-value timepieces’.
The robbers made one error, the prosecutor said, dropping Mrs Cavendish’s stolen mobile phone outside the property.
DNA recovered from the phone was attributed to Ali Sesay, who pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, and police then ‘traced a phone attributed to Mr Sesay’
Renvoize said: ‘It was from the communications data from that telephone belonging to Mr Sesay that police were able to identify a number of other telephone numbers that appear to have been involved in the offence.’
One mobile phone number was attached to Jobson, who denied the device was his – but jurors saw otherwise and rejected this account.
A photograph of the defendant was issued by the police in January 2022 indicating he was a suspect, touching off a wave of interest in the press, said Renvoize.
‘Media interest was intensified and renewed after a trial took place in relation to other defendants,’ the prosecutor said.
‘On June 5 2023 the defendant was arrested at Chelmsford Police Station as he handed himself in.’
Jobson’s defence argued that a ‘guilty person on the run wouldn’t just go into a police station like that’.
Piers Mostyn said on Friday: ‘He felt able to present himself for that reason.’
Romario Henry, 31, of Bell Green, Lewisham, south-east London, was found guilty of two counts of robbery and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Sesay, 28, of Holding Street, Rainham, Kent, admitted two counts of robbery and was jailed for 12 years.
Judge Timothy Walker told Jobson today: ‘The evidence against you was overwhelming.’
Jobson will remain in custody until Wednesday when he will be sentenced.
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