Millionaire trader cleared of bullying and assaulting wife
A MILLIONAIRE hedge fund boss accused of ‘systematically bullying’ and assaulting his wife has walked free from court.
A jury took less than three hours to unanimously clear former Deutsche Bank derivatives expert Guy Mitchinson of four charges following a twoweek trial.
Mr Mitchinson, 38, once ran Castilium Capital with his wife Alicia Vidler, 37, who claimed in court she had become a virtual prisoner in the couple’s £3.4 million home in Knightsbridge.
During the trial at Isleworth Crown Court in West London, Mr Mitchinson insisted his former wife’s claims had been invented to escape both their troubled business and their short marriage.
The court heard how Miss Vidler was an equity derivatives trader with Deutsche Bank in Sydney before moving to the UK, where she studied for a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College.
She founded Mayfair’s Castilium Capital with Mr Mitchinson in January 2012 and the couple married in January 2014. But the business and marriage began to fail and after Mr Mitchinson was charged with assault last year, he was forced to move to a flat in West Hampstead. He was also banned from directly contacting Miss Vidler.
The millionaire then suffered the ignominy of being served with divorce papers when he arrived at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court for one of his preliminary hearings. During the trial, Miss Vidler – who suffers from arthritis and sometimes used a wheelchair because of her condition – denied her account of the relationship was ‘fabricated and exaggerated.’
Caroline Paul, prosecuting, said: ‘This trial is about a man systematically bullying his wife in order to control her and he became more controlling and violent between January and July last year.’ It was claimed that during one row before a matinee theatre trip with friends, Mr Mitchinson jabbed Miss Vidler in the stomach with a dinner plate, grabbed her by the arm and pushed her against the wall screaming insults.
She also claimed he had smashed a glass tumbler over her head. Miss Vidler reported that incident to her GP on July 23 last year, and Mr Mitchinson was arrested and questioned by police.
He told officers that his wife was drunk and had thrown the tumbler at him, and he had been forced to restrain her. The jury believed Mr Mitchinson and found him not guilty of one charge of controlling or coercive behaviour and three counts of assault.