The victim of a daylight robbery in which almost £1.5m of jewellery was stolen from her own home has spoken about the “horrific experience”.

A masked man “pistol-whipped” and threatened the woman after approaching her in her garden in Parkfield near Wildernesse Golf Club in Sevenoaks.

She has now relived the harrowing experience, in which she had her head split open with a gun before having her hands and feet tied with an extension cable to immobilise her.

Speaking of the ordeal, the woman in her 60s, said: “What happened to me was the farthest thing away from my mind to encounter such a horrific experience.

“This person is violent, dangerous and I believe he could possibly do it again.

“Living there I felt totally safe, it was just a lovely place to have a home.”

The woman - who wishes to remain anonymous - recalls how she had gone into her garden before making her way back towards the front door when the armed robber approached and pointed a gun at her.

“I think I just went into shock. I just remember him grabbing my collar, pulling me. He asked about the safes and I decided to take him to the one outside,” she added.

In an audio recording released by detectives with BBC’s Crimewatch, the criminal’s voice can be heard as he makes demands.

The armed burglar says: “Open it. Open the garage.”

The victim has described how the man “grabbed everything” out of the garage safe before pushing the items into a satchel.

The video footage, which was shown on Crimewatch yesterday (March 18), shows how the woman is dragged back towards the house and can be heard shouting “help me”.

She said: “He dragged me upstairs into bedroom and forced me to open the other safe.

“Whilst I was doing that, he split my forehead open with the gun. Blood was everywhere in my eyes.

“He proceeded to empty that safe into his satchel and then dragged me back down the stairs.

“He tore a cable from one of the lamps and tied my hands and tied my feet with the extension cable. He then tied them to my hands, so I was totally immobilised.

“I think he had fractured a rib because the pain was excruciating.

“And then he came back down and put a chair on my back as well.

“I just lay there in sheer panic. I thought, oh my goodness, is he going to kill me.

“I didn’t know if he was still in the house.”

The victim was left tied up for over an hour before her husband came home.

When he did, she recalls shouting: “There’s an armed robber in the house, I don’t know if he’s still here.

“My husband couldn’t believe the state I was in that he found me.

“I said to my husband, take a photograph of the way this person has tied me up because I think this looks pretty professional and then cut the cables off me.

“I feared for my life, I could possibly have died.”

The victim believes this offender has carried out this type of crime “many times” and is “pretty professional”.

During the incident, which happened at around 3.55pm on Friday, June 21, the offender wore a balaclava, and the victim notes how he didn’t have a foreign accent.

Detective Inspector Maxine Harris appeared on Crimewatch Live to talk about the investigation and urged viewers to listen to the audio clip which includes demands made by the offender to his victim.

Explaining the suspect’s movements after the aggravated burglary, she said he got the 5.38pm train from Hildenborough train station. He then got off the train at Tonbridge train station where he there gets on the next train.

Finally, he gets off at Marden train station and onto his bike, leaving Marden train station at 6.02pm.

DI Harris said: “He is a white male, exceptionally large build, a distinctive feature is his muscular arms. He had trainers with very distinctive red soles.

“It was a warm, hot, sunny day and the clothing that the offender was wearing I think would have stood out to his fellow passengers as being unusual.”

Anyone with information which may assist the investigation can provide this through our online portal Public Portal.

You can also call Kent Police on 01622 652006 quoting reference 46/102682/24.

Crimestoppers is offering a reward for information the charity exclusively receives - via its website Crimestoppers-uk.org or by calling 0800 555 111 – that leads to the conviction of those responsible.

The reward is available for three months and is due to expire on 18 June, 2025.

The charity says the man in the image should not be approached, and while he could have connections with the Staplehurst area, he may live outside of Kent.