Ex-footballer’s family burgled at knifepoint

London Evening Standard/London

Former England striker Ian Wright raced back home from the World Cup yesterday after his wife was left “in shock” following a raid by masked, knife-wielding robbers as their daughters were in bed upstairs.

Wright, who was in Brazil as a TV pundit, caught the first flight back to London after being told of the attack at their Kensal Rise home.

Just before 9.30pm on Wednesday, his wife Nancy Hallam answered the door and was forced inside by four thugs. One is said to have shouted: “If you don’t tell us where the safe is we’ll cut off your kids’ fingers.” Another urged: “Punch her, punch her, kill her!”

The 39-year-old was bundled into a bedroom, with the couple’s two young children in another room nearby. When she tried to resist, the gang is said to have threatened to cut off her fingers as well as those of the two girls, aged two and four.

The robbers escaped with cash, jewellery and engraved watches. After they left it is believed Hallam rang her husband in Brazil.

The former Arsenal star, 50, who has been working for ITV at the tournament, tweeted shortly before his flight: “You won’t get away with it !” Yesterday the family’s nanny said: “Thank God the children were in bed or I do not know what would have happened. They have not been told about this terrible thing ... to protect them. Nancy is OK but in shock. Ian rang on Wednesday night and is on his way back. I have been nanny for five years and my heart melted. I love the family. I am taking the children out to keep things as normal as we can but it is difficult.”

Minty Reeves, a client manager for Wright’s agent Steve Kutner Management, said: “It was a terrifying ordeal. The gang held Nancy in one room and the children in another and told her to hand over everything they had.

Hallam’s sister Molly told the Standard that she was recovering from her ordeal but would not return home until her husband arrived back from Rio. “She is doing OK. She is in a safe place.

“I haven’t spoken to Ian. We are waiting for him to come back.” Neighbours in Kensal Rise spoke of their shock that the Wright family’s £2mn home had been raided. One local, Chris Martin, said: “We were watching the Spain versus Chile game when we saw two police cars arrive at the property and then the street was full of officers.

“We are so terribly upset for Ian and his family. They are lovely, lovely people and it is a shock for us all here.”

The robbery is the latest in a series of raids on the homes of prominent footballers, who are thought to have been targeted by criminals in the knowledge that they are away. Last month, the West Hampstead property of Watford midfielder Alexander Merkel was ram-raided by men on mopeds.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Police are investigating an aggravated burglary at a residential address in north-west London.” The suspects are described as black, aged 18 to 25, with London accents.