BRUCE Forsyth's traumatised wife Wilnelia last night relived the moment brutal

Brucie: Our battered maid crawled on roof to escape thugs

BRUCE Forsyth's traumatised wife Wilnelia last night relived the moment brutal raiders pinned her semi-naked to her bed and tried to rip off her jewellery.

The Puerto Rican beauty fought with the two masked men after they smashed their way into TV legend Bruce's $4million home last week.

"I thought I was going to die," said the former Miss World. "They both grabbed me by the wrists and held me down. They were tearing at the rings on my fingers, screaming 'Give us your jewellery, give us your jewellery'."

Wilnelia was speaking for the first time of the night of horror in which her brave housekeeper Cora Gumarang was viciously attacked by the men.

Battered Cora—who ended up with black eyes, a broken jaw and facial bruising—crawled onto the roof after escaping the raiders.

They had locked Bruce's son Jonathan Joseph—nicknamed JJ— in his room.

Last night the shaken entertainer held both women close as he listened to the chilling details of their ordeal.

The 74-year-old star of Play Your Cards Right and The Generation Game was in Scotland for the Open golf championship at Muirfield when the attack took place.

Fist

He thundered: "The men who did this are animals. Look what they did to little Cora. I want them caught and given the justice they deserve."

Clenching his fist he added: "It was the first day I'd been out of the house in more than three months.

"I don't know what I'd have done if I had been at the house. But I'm sure I would have been able to do something.

"The hours it took me to rush back home from Scotland were the longest of my life. There's not a minute goes by when I don't regret I wasn't here when it happened."

The nightmare began as Wilnelia was getting ready for bed.

JJ was in his ground-floor study playing on his computer and Cora was in her room on the third floor of the six-bedroom mansion on the exclusive Wentworth estate near Virginia Water, Surrey.

Wilnelia, 42, said: "I was upstairs in my bedroom. I took my clothes off and put on a little robe but I still had all my jewellery on.

"I had just picked up the internal phone to call my son when I heard someone running up the stairs.

"I called JJ's name, half thinking it was him. I froze when the first man burst in.

"He screamed at me to put the phone down. I think he thought I was calling the police.

"He grabbed it out of my hand and then another man came into the room."

As they grabbed Wilnelia's wrist and pulled off her watch she pleaded with them not to hurt her or JJ. They tried to rip her expensive rings off her fingers but she managed to stop them.

"I said, ‘Look, there is no need to pull them off. I'll give them to you. I'll give you everything you want'," she recalled.

"When they demanded to see the safe I told them we didn't have one. Then I remembered I had cash in my handbag and I gave them that.

"I told them to take everything just to get them out of the house."

Grabbed

As the men—one of whom was thought to be carrying a knife— fled with another accomplice Wilnelia grabbed one of husband Bruce's prized golf clubs and dashed out to make sure her son was safe. But when she ran upstairs to check on Cora the full horror of the raid unfolded.

She said: "I called out to Cora and knocked on her door really hard." Wilnelia then heard a knocking sound back. But it wasn't coming from the room. It was coming from the ROOF.

Tiny Cora—described by Bruce as "one of the family"—had suffered an excruciating attack. When she had heard the robbers coming up the stairs she had tried to dial 999 on her mobile.

"I was about to press the call button when they grabbed my hands. They tried to tie me up and took my phone off me," sobbed Cora, who is barely 5ft tall.

"That's when I went really mad at them. I kicked them. I was so angry that I didn't feel anything that night."

Cora—who flinches in agony every time she speaks—was then beaten up by the two thugs.

But as they left to find Wilnelia she crawled to another room and phoned police before scrambling out of a window and onto the roof because she was terrified they would come back.

During the struggle, Cora managed to pull off one villain's hood and has been able to give a description to police. Bruce told us: "What they have done to Cora is what an animal would do to an other animal. It's not what a person would do to another person.

"It's like this poor little mite has been in a boxing match. I just can't believe that anybody could treat someone as tiny as her so badly, so brutally."

Ring

Valuables stolen in the Friday night raid included Wilnelia's four-carat antique cut diamond engagement ring and her gold wedding ring embedded with baguette diamonds.

A silver and gold Bulgari bracelet and a Chanel emblem gold and diamond necklace were also stolen.

So too was about $150 cash and a diamond-encrusted Ebel watch.

Police are looking for three men, all around 20 years old. One is described as a white male, about 5ft 9in, medium build who was wearing a blue hooded jogging top. The other two men involved are black.

One was between 5ft 9in and 6ft 2in and wore a grey or black hooded jogging top, the other was described as being about 6ft 3in.

Anyone with information should ring Surrey Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

This is the fourth time telly favourite Bruce has been robbed. In 1980, burglars broke in but left empty-handed when they were disturbed by staff.

In 1983, his Spanish villa was raided and burglars made off with jewellery and cash while he was playing golf with Sean Connery in Marbella.

And eight years later, two King Charles spaniels were stolen from the Virginia Water house.

Bruce has now called in experts to tighten security at the home where he has lived for 20 years.

He said: "I just hope the police can catch this lot before they do the same thing to someone else."