A ‘brazen’ gang smashed their way into a farmhouse while a five-year-old child slept upstairs.

The five men, one of whom was armed with a crowbar, made the girl’s 55-year-old nanny kneel before they quizzed her on the location of valuables.

Thames Valley Police said the group prized a gun safe from the wall of the secluded farmhouse near Eynsham. They also took designer watches and bags and a 69-plate Nissan Juke that, collectively, was worth £200,000.

Investigating officer DS Simon Pond of Banbury police station told the Oxford Mail: “We are conducting a very detailed investigation and we will do all we can to identify and arrest those individuals and ensure for the sake of the victims that the full weight of the law is applied.”

He added of the aggravated burglary: “It is certainly one of the most brazen attacks on a property that I’ve seen.”

The gang was said to have smashed an upstairs hallway window in order to get into the property at between 9.10pm and 9.20pm on Friday, January 27.

Inside the house at the time was a 55-year-old nanny and a five-year-old girl, who was asleep upstairs. Her parents were out at the time.

Mr Pond said the woman had been ‘forced to kneel on the ground’ while the gang members, whose faces were covered, ‘demanded to know’ where various valuables were. The house was then ‘ransacked’.

The gang stole goods worth £200,000, including the nanny’s mobile phone and her blue Nissan Juke car with the partial number plate WU69.

A £10,000 black Hermes Birkin bag, a diamond necklace worth £40,000, and Rolex, Patek Philippe and Bremont watches worth an estimated £55,000, were among the designer goods taken.

Also stolen was a firearms safe that contained H&H, Tikka and Smith & Wesson rifles as well as Beretta and Armsan shotguns.

The five men left the scene in the stolen Nissan Juke and a getaway car, a dark coloured coupé described by the police as ‘possibly an Audi S5 or A5’.

Mr Pond told the Mail that the victim was ‘still distressed’ by what happened. “She was clearly very audibly and visibly distressed on the CCTV footage. You can tell it was a traumatic experience. We are speaking to her every day.”

He added of the child’s parents, who were not in the house at the time: “Similarly, they are very upset by what’s happened. It was only by chance they weren’t all there at the time.”

Detectives have conducted CCTV and house-to-house enquiries in the surrounding area. Anyone who had seen either the Nissan Juke or the Audi coupé on the night of the raid was urged to come forward.

Investigators were said to be probing a number of lines of enquiry, including whether the raid was planned and linked to the sighting of a man near the house on the afternoon of January 9.

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 and quote the reference number 43230041088. Information can also be left anonymously, via Crimestoppers, by calling 0800 555 111.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward