A masked raider who threatened to lower off frail England footballer Ashley Cole’’s fingers with pliers in a gross knifepoint robbery has furthermore been found guilty of being portion of a gang that stole £3.5million Portland Diamond tiara alongside two other thugs.
Kurtis Dilks, 35, modified into portion of a group that tied Mr Cole’s fingers in the aid of his aid in front of his kids in a raid on the footballer’s £3million mansion in Fetcham, Surrey on January 21 2020.
He modified into convicted at Nottingham Crown Court docket currently for tying footballer Mr Cole and his lady friend up with cable ties at his £3million mansion in Fetcham, Surrey.
Mr Cole knowledgeable the trial that he felt that he modified into “going to die” throughout the assault, in which the crowd smashed into his house with a sledgehammer.
The intruders ran away after they had been alerted to the presence of police.
Nottingham Crown Court docket heard how Kurtis Dilks modified into caught after his DNA modified into recovered on the cable ties ragged to restrain Cole and his accomplice Sharon Canu, while their kids had been house.
The court docket modified into previously proven CCTV of the intruders main the frail England defender up and down the steps, before they made off with watches, cell phones, cash, a Gucci bag, headphones and a BMW super key.
Prosecutor Michael Brady QC talked about knowledgeable the court docket Mr Cole and his accomplice had settled appropriate down to question a movie however had been alerted to the intruders after they heard a noise from exterior the front of the house.
Mr Cole checked his CCTV diagram and knowledgeable Ms Canu to call police, which she did after hiding in a material cabinet.
The prosecutor persisted: “The following thing Ms Canu knew modified into when one amongst the robbers opened the fabric cabinet door and took the phone from her while she modified into speaking to the police.
“Ms Canu… adopted the intruder and modified into directed wordlessly by the man who had taken her phone to the bed room the attach Mr Cole modified into.
“She then saw Mr Cole on his knees with his fingers tied in the aid of his aid.”
Mr Brady talked about Ms Canu turned more and more concerned after she spotted one amongst the intruders with a “substantial hammer” as Mr Cole modified into taken from the bed room by the robbers.
The particular person demanded jewellery and ‘kettles’, which is slang for watches, and wanted to know the attach the friendly modified into.
When Mr Cole knowledgeable him that he didn’t fill the rest, the man grabbed the aid of his neck and squeezed it, the court docket heard.
Mr Brady QC talked about Ms Canu “rather bravely” in the starting attach refused to fill her fingers certain before she relented when threatened with a knife.
Real by the ordeal, Mr Cole recalled listening to one amongst the attackers, a stocky more aggressive man who furthermore spoke with an Irish accent and modified into armed with a pair of pliers, repeating “let’s lower his fingers”.
“Irrespective of the efforts of the stocky robber to assault him with pliers, the robber who Mr Cole described as the ‘boss man’, the one who had first approached him in his bed room and grabbed his neck, averted the assault from going forward,” Mr Brady QC talked about.
The court docket heard the robbers then demanded bleach and cleaning products, before one “sprayed Mr Cole’s fingers with Febreze”.
The gang fled after one shouted “police”.
In his defence, Dilks claimed his DNA modified into found on the cable ties and a knife recovered from the scene in Fetcham, Surrey, as a consequence of they had been items previously stolen from his van.
He modified into convicted alongside five others for their roles in a string of “ruthlessly carried out” robberies and burglaries between October 2018 and January 2020.
Dilks alongside Ashley Cumberpatch and Andrew MacDonald – modified into furthermore currently found guilty of the theft of the Portland Tiara, a £3.5 million tiara used to the coronation of Edward VII, which has not at all been recovered.
The court docket heard the 2018 theft of the ‘nationwide love’ and its related brooch, from the Harley Gallery on the Welbeck Property in Worksop, modified into a ‘shocking tournament’ and so they would possibly maybe no longer ever all every other time be viewed of their fashioned explain.