Boss who battered pensioner on his own drive
A BUSINESSMAN battered a retired Lloyd’s insurance broker on the drive of the pensioner’s £1.3million home in a clash following a chance encounter.
Iain Catleugh Hutchinson, 51, chased 66year- old Jeremy Lyons around his parked car, punching him at least six times.
A court heard the millionaire owner of the 202-year-old firm which made the Big Ben clock flew into a rage after Mr Lyons almost drove into him.
Mr Lyons was turning into the gated estate where he lives when he had to brake suddenly to avoid Hutchinson, who was on foot.
Hutchinson, shouting expletives, followed Mr Lyons into the estate in Battersea, South London, before cornering him on his driveway where CCTV cameras filmed the attack.
Footage shows the entrepreneur and property developer grabbing Mr Lyons with his left hand, launching a volley of right hooks and dragging the terrified motorist to the ground. Mr Lyons claims he was kicked before his attacker walked off leaving him in agony.
The two men were strangers but Hutchinson was arrested after police obtained further Jeremy Lyons (left) and Iain Hutchinson CCTV footage showing him entering his £3million Thames-side penthouse apartment nearby a short time later. Last week he pleaded guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court to assault causing actual bodily harm.
Describing the incident which led to the attack on May 29, prosecutor Jackie Hughes said Mr Lyons had to brake after Hutchinson stepped out into the road. She added: ‘They looked at each other for a couple of seconds.’ He saw Hutchinson mouth an offensive word.
Hutchinson claimed none of his punches connected with Mr Lyons and denied kicking him. But he admitted dragging him to the ground, causing cuts and bruises to the victim who also suffered back pain from a previous injury to two discs in his spine.
Mr Lyons, who has had to have injections for back spasms since the assault, plans to sue over his injuries. He claims he might have been killed or paralysed if a neighbour had not interrupted the attack by shouting.
He said: ‘He (Hutchinson) said, “I’m gonna get you, kill you,” and started punching me, kicking me and then picks me up and throws me over the gate and I ended up on the pavement. I could not walk for two weeks.
‘The man is an animal. I thought I was going to die. I stopped right in front of him and he nearly walked into my car. I looked him in the eye as if to say you were lucky. It’s not my fault he’s walked off the edge of the pavement.’
District Judge James Henderson banned the defendant from the road where Mr Lyons lives and sent the case to Kingston Crown Court for sentencing on a date to be fixed.
The court heard that Hutchinson has previous criminal convictions, although these were not read out in court.
He is a director of 14 companies. His firm Dent & Co was established in 1814 by Edward J. Dent, who won the contract to produce Parliament’s Big Ben clock in 1852.