Tory peer’s son, 54, ‘picked up girlfriend of 19 and threw her out of f lat in row over kitchen tongs’
THE middle-aged son of former Tory minister Lord Gowrie picked up his 19year-old girlfriend and threw her from his flat after a row over a pair of cooking tongs, a court heard yesterday.
Lola Tyrrell was left ‘hardly dressed’ outside the property in Notting Hill, West London, Westminster Magistrates Court was told.
Brer Ruthven, Viscount Ruthven of Canberra, 54, denies assaulting Miss Tyrrell on August 5. He is heir to the title Baron Ruthven of Gowrie in the county of Perth and he has one son who is nine years older than Miss Tyrrell.
His father Lord Gowrie, 78, was a member of Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet as arts
‘She was hardly dressed’
minister between 1983 and 1985, and is a former chairman of Sotheby’s and the Arts Council of England.
Yesterday Katie Bryan, prosecuting, told magistrates: ‘At the time of this incident the complainant and defendant were in a relationship and in the process of separating.’
They had met in January last year at East London’s trendy Whitechapel Gallery and according to Miss Tyrrell, of Leeds, hit it off immediately, with shared interests in films, art and fashion.
The couple were at Ruthven’s flat when a row over the cooking tongs allegedly broke out between 9.30pm and 10pm. Miss Bryan said: ‘An argument took place over a pair of tongs that the complainant wanted to use while cooking dinner, because Mr Ruthven said they were new. He started shouting and told her to use a fork and that she would have to do all the washing up.
‘He went into the bedroom and started packing some of her clothes into a suitcase and told her to take it to her place because he needed the room.’
They sat down to eat but, according to Miss Tyrrell, he was still shouting at her, accusing her of having a ‘s***ty attitude’, the court heard. ‘He continued to shout at her and she describes him as “flipping out” and picking her up with one arm under her body and the other around her and taking her to the door and flinging her into the street,’ added Miss Bryan. ‘She was hardly dressed and had little in clothing and knocked on the kitchen window. She told him she was going to call the police and he told her to, “**** off”.’
When police arrived, Ruthven told the officers: ‘I dragged her out of the house. I did not hurt her. We are in the process of splitting up and she can’t handle it.’
Miss Tyrrell, who is expected to give evidence from behind a screen, told police: ‘I don’t know what he’s capable of because he has such a short fuse. He belittles me a lot.’
Ruthven was bailed on condition he does not contact Miss Tyrrell. He is due to stand trial on October 4.
His lawyer Rory Laide told the court: ‘There have been posts on social media in derogatory terms concerning Mr Ruthven. He has reported them to the police.’
Ruthven was educated at private Westminster School, where fees are now £39,000 a year, and works as a database developer at City law firm Clyde & Co.
He is a musician with the band Melanchodelia and recently opened his local Portobello Music Festival. He married Julie Goldsmith in 1990, the same year their son, the Hon Heathcote Patrick Cornelius Hore-Ruthven, was born.