Now this is out in the open I can reveal James Vince issues. I know the family well and have known about this from the start and the anguish this has caused, and is still causing to his wife and young children. James loves Hampshire CCC but his has put a strain on the whole family as well as the cost of alternative accommodation.
James Vince has lived with his young family in the same house, in the same sleepy village, near Hampshire’s headquarters, just east of Southampton, for almost eight years. He has never known any trouble.
That was until Vince, his wife and two young children woke in the middle of the night three months ago to the sound of glass smashing and alarms blaring as his house and cars were attacked totally out of the blue.
The family lived elsewhere while they had the damage repaired, which took almost a month. But just a week after the repairs were completed and they had returned, another very similar attack took place.
The former England batsman remains completely at a loss to explain what is going on. He has had some “very difficult conversations” with his wife Amy, as they make absolutely certain that the cause of this is nothing to do with them. They contacted the police immediately, and they have been investigating. Having looked at bank statements and phone records, they have found nothing unusual that could help explain the situation.
Vince has received support from Hampshire, the England and Wales Cricket Board, and the Professional Cricketers’ Association, who have hired intelligence firms to look deep into the matter. Those searches have also brought nothing to the surface, and with no obvious motive, the only available conclusion is that this is a case of mistaken identity, and someone else is being targeted by the attackers. The two attacks have been totally isolated; the attackers have made no contact, or given any indication of their motive.
“All the experts we’ve spoken to say it looks like a money issue, unpaid debts or something,” Vince tells Telegraph Sport. “We have nothing to hide and know we have never been involved in anything like this. We just desperately want this to stop.”
Vince, who played 13 Tests and 42 white-ball internationals for England and was part of the squad that won the World Cup in 2019, is an intensely private man who has explored every realistic avenue to solve the issue before going public with it. But the family feel they have been left with no choice as they desperately seek more information.
“If anyone knows anything, or sees anything in the footage of the attack that could lead to anything, please contact us or the Hampshire Police. It could be the final piece of information we need to find out what is going on and get our lives back to normal,” the 33-year-old says.
‘We rushed straight to the kids’
The two attacks have been almost identical. The first took place in the second week of April, at around 3am on a Monday morning.
“My wife and I woke suddenly to a load of smashing, and alarms going off,” says Vince. “We had no idea what was going on and it was obviously very unnerving so we rushed straight to get the kids [who are seven and three] to make sure they were safe. They were clearly very shaken up. By the time we had done that, and contacted the police, they had gone, and we did not see them. A neighbour saw a car drive away.
“It looks like they used some kind of metal bar the first time. There were two cars in the drive, and almost all the windows on both of them were smashed in, as well as the windows at the front of the house.”
While the damage to the cars and house were repaired, security cameras and alarms installed. The Vinces lived elsewhere in that period, but with some trepidation they returned home, only for a repeat attack just a few days later. Bizarrely, both attacks happened during Hampshire home matches.
“For the second one, I was actually still awake upstairs,” says Vince. “That meant I was able to get downstairs quite quickly and had more of a sense of what was going on. It obviously wasn’t such a surprise either, because it had happened before. I think they saw the activity in the house and left quickly.
“This time, they used bricks – and the damage wasn’t quite as bad. It was similar though, with windows on the cars and house smashed. We were still up because we’d been at a dinner for my team-mate Chris Wood’s benefit year at the ground. We got home about 11.30pm, and it happened about midnight. We know a bit more about this one, because we have footage from the new security cameras.”
The footage shows a man with a torch – possibly filming – passing bricks over the perimeter wall to another man, who is wearing a hoodie emblazoned with a logo of the brand Gym King on the back (which could provide a key clue to his identity), and has his face covered. He throws the bricks at windows on the house, then the cars, before fleeing.
After the second attack, Vince’s family beefed up their security provision further by hiring local crime and security experts to watch the property, but the threat of a third attack still looms.
“We don’t want to risk the same thing happening again,” he says. “It’s not fair on my wife or children to have to go through it again.
“Obviously something like this is hugely disruptive in our lives, especially for our children, who have understandably been affected and unsettled by the situation. Having said that, I’m amazed and extremely proud of how they have dealt with it. We have received great support locally, and from within cricket. We have also enlisted private security personnel, who have found some key information, which is promising. Anything more that anyone knows would be fantastic, though, because this has to end.”
By
Will Macpherson
, CRICKET NEWS CORRESPONDENT
16 July 2024 • 10:33am
James Vince interview: Repeated attacks on my home forced me and my family out (telegraph.co.uk)
If anyone knows anything please let me know.
