Cleared of murder, yob who killed former top banker with one punch
THE family of a banker killed by a single punch reacted with horror yesterday as his attacker was cleared of murder.
Relatives of Oliver Dearlove said they would be facing a life sentence – rather than his killer.
The 30-year-old, who used to work at royal bank Coutts, died after being felled by Trevor Timon on his way home from a night out.
He had stopped to ask a woman if her feet hurt when she took off her heels outside a nightclub.
Chatting to the new mother about her first night out since giving birth, he was looking at photos of her baby when Timon, 31, stormed in with a single punch. Yesterday the victim’s family gasped in shock as the thug was cleared of murder at the Old Bailey after admitting the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Mr Dearlove’s distraught mother Joy Wright said they had been ‘ robbed’. Fighting tears, she said: ‘We feel like the scales of justice are weighed towards the perpetrator and not the victim.’
It can now be revealed that Timon is a jobless yob ‘ with a penchant for violence’, whose brother is serving life for murdering a man in chillingly similar circumstances.
Older sibling Wesley, 32, led a knife attack on a 19-year- old because he spoke to a girlfriend of a member of his gang. The incident took place at a nightclub in Woolwich, southeast London – less than three miles away from where Mr Dearlove was killed in Blackheath.
And like his brother, Wesley was said to have been in a ‘fighting mood’ when he ‘ robbed a family of a well-loved son’.
In court this week, Prosecutor Anthony Orchard, QC, said Trevor Timon had a ‘penchant for violence in a public setting’, adding: ‘ He makes the threats and then punches. He’s fully aware that in punching someone he’s going to cause really serious injury.’
The court heard how Timon punched a woman unconscious outside a nightclub in 2010 after telling her: ‘I’m going to bang you out.’ Two years later he threatened to petrol bomb a pub because he was asked to leave at closing time.
Unemployed Timon was in the mood for a fight again last August when he spotted Mr Dearlovewomen he chattingknew outsideto a groupa club. of The thug, who had spent the night swigging £175 of champagne, stormed up to the banker and said: ‘I’m going to knock you out.’ Mr Dearlove, who had a highflying career with private bank Duncan Lawrie, suffered catastrophic injuries and died less than 24 hours later. Yesterday his family said in a statement: ‘Oliver will never marry, have children, or indeed watch his nephews grow up. We have been robbed, but more to the point, Oli has been robbed of an amazing and fulfilled future. ‘We have to start our lives again now without Oli, it is like a life sentence.’ Mr Dearlove had been planning to buy a house with his girlfriend of four years, Claire Wheatley, and they had discussed having a baby together. Timon will be sentenced tomorrow.