Man beaten up after Grenfell tragedy was ‘volunteering to help the victims’
A MAN who was mistaken for a Tory councillor and beaten up by activists who stormed Kensington Town Hall in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy has been left injured and badly shaken by the incident.
Robert Outram, 56, had spent much of last week volunteering at the makeshift shelters set up to help victims of the deadly blaze.
But the father of two, a financial consultant whose firm is employed by Kensington and Chelsea Council, was at the council offices when despair turned into angry protests on Friday.
Dressed in a suit, he was apparently deemed a legitimate target by protesters who set upon him, pushing him to the ground and pouring water on him.
He said he and a colleague were attacked as they entered the building and someone shouted “It’s them two”.
His wife, Angela Outram, said: “He got a big bang on the head, he was thumped, he’s been left with a lump on the side of his head. He was really shaken up by it all.
“He had nothing to do with any of this. In fact, he’s been volunteering to help the victims.
“The council didn’t warn anyone about this protest. His picture is online with the wrong name attached to it.”
Mr Outram, from Stafford, works in debt management and is a former civil servant.
He was head of income collection at Islington Council before setting up his own company, Westgem Consultancy, which provides debt recovery advice to public and private sector clients.
The protest was called to demand justice for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.