Former England star Ashley Cole told police “I knew now, I am going to die” as masked raiders smashed into his home and tied his hands.

Kurtis Dilks, 34, is charged with being part of the gang who allegedly smashed their way into Mr Cole and his partner Sharon Canu’s home with a sledgehammer and threatened to cut the ex-footballer’s fingers off.

The ex-Arsenal, Chelsea and England defender said at least four men broke into his Surrey home in January 2020, shortly after he had settled down to watch Netflix.

In footage of the interview shown at Nottingham Crown Court, Mr Cole said: “I was on my knees, waiting to either be killed… I’ll never see my kids again.”

Mr Cole said he had just got back from work with Chelsea’s under-15s before hearing a “banging sound”.

He told police: “As soon as I put Netflix on, literally 10 to 15 seconds after that, I heard like a banging sound.

“I could hear it was like outside of my bedroom, just to the left, coming through the window.

“The banging was vibrating up the walls into my bedroom. I literally looked at Sharon… and I said ‘what’s that?’

“She said ‘I don’t know but that’s not a normal noise’.

“I got off the bed and said to her ‘this is why I should keep a weapon, like a golf club, in my bedroom’.”

Mr Cole said he then looked at the cameras on his phone to see if he could identify the intruders.

He said: “I could see they were carrying a ladder towards my balcony.

“I said ‘Sharon, there’s someone in the garden trying to get on the balcony… call the police’.”

He then recalled what happened when he stepped out on to his balcony and said: “I swore at them and shouted ‘help me, someone is trying to get into my house’ and they turned and went to run away.”

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