Chelsea boss confronts masked robbers

The vice-president of Chelsea football club and his family were terrorised by a gang of masked men who broke into their luxury home.

Joe Hemani, a millionaire businessman, was beaten with iron bars by the men who got into the house by propping a ladder up against the rear wall of his mansion in Berkshire.

The trio demanded to know where his safe was but when Mr Hemani refused to tell them, the gang then turned on his wife, ripping jewellery and rings from her.

Mr Hemani, who is chairman of software firm Westcoast, said: "They were in the bedroom and jumped on me. I told them that there was nothing valuable in the house but they kept asking me where the safe was. They threatened to kill me unless I showed them where it was and it ended up as a general punch-up."

Mr Hemani said his daughter, Francesca, 13, and wife, Kathleen, ran into the room and helped him to fight off the attackers on Wednesday evening. The gang then fled down the ladder with a large haul of jewellery when they saw Mr Hemani's son.

His daughter Francesca said: "I was very scared but could not cry because I was shaking so much. My dad was on his knees and one of them was hitting him with a crowbar."