Cambridge don cleared of assault claims ex-fiancée tried to ruin him
Academic found not guilty of attacking postgraduate after court hears he called off wedding over infidelity
A CAMBRIDGE PHD student who cheated on her fiancé during a trip to the Galapagos Islands tried to “ruin” his life when he called off their wedding, a court has heard.
Sophia Cooke, a postgraduate zoology student, was accused of launching a vendetta against Matthew Baron, 26, that left him banned from his college and with his reputation in tatters.
Baron, a paleontologist, said his life in Cambridge became almost “untenable” after Miss Cooke accused him of beating her when he ended their yearlong engagement in February last year.
The couple, who lived together in a flat in Christ’s College, had been planning to get married, but things went wrong when Miss Cooke had an affair during the trip to the Pacific island chain.
Miss Cooke said that after she admitted the affair, Baron subjected her to a two-hour physical assault.
She broke the news of her infidelity while the couple were at a nature reserve in the
Fens. Giving evidence at Huntingdon magistrates’ court, Miss Cooke, from Bristol, said Baron repeatedly smashed her iphone into her car stereo and assaulted her, leaving her with cuts and bruises.
She said: “I remember thinking I have driven this man to violence. I have ruined his life and have cheated on him. All I wanted was for him to forgive me.”
She said she had initially blamed herself, adding: “It took me months to realise that this was not my fault.”
Baron’s counsel, Emma Hayfield, challenged her version of events, telling her this was about “getting back at Matt because he wanted to call off the wedding”. Miss Cooke replied: “I am not here for revenge. What he did was wrong … I do not want him to do it to anyone else.”
Baron said his ex-fiancée was a “fantasist” who had set out to destroy him because he could not forgive her infidelity. He said when she had confessed her infidelity to him: “I cried. I was heartbroken. I had really trusted her and loved her and I had just had this bombshell.
“She told me we could still have the wedding of our dreams, but that was of course all nonsense.
As far as I was concerned, this was the ultimate betrayal and I was very explicit that it was over.”
Baron admitted slapping the dashboard of her car in anger, but denied assaulting Miss Cooke. He said: “I have never been violent in my life, to anyone. I don’t care if she had slept with the entire island, I would never have hit her. That is not who I am.”
Baron, from Hartlepool, who lectures at Cambridge, said she had threatened to ruin him when he told her he wanted her to move out of their flat. “She said, ‘If you tell anyone that I have cheated I will ruin you. I will tell everyone you have been a violent monster’. I was on the verge of having some big success in my career and she was threatening to ruin that. She had me banned from my college, she had me banned from the college bar … it has made my life in Cambridge almost untenable. People look at me as if I am sub-human, it has been the hardest time of my life.”
Asked why he thought she had embarked on the alleged vendetta he said: “It saved her from having to go to her family and tell them the wedding was off because she had had an affair.” Baron was found not guilty of assault, but was convicted of causing criminal damage to Miss Cooke’s car stereo. Simona Rockall, chairman of the bench, said the court had found Miss Cooke’s version of events to be “inconsistent and not credible”.
Baron was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £300 compensation, £300 costs and £20 victim surcharge. Speaking after the trial Baron said: “I am so relieved it is all over and I now just want to get back on with my life. This has been a horrendous ordeal.” Miss Cooke did not comment.