I’m shell-shocked you can be attacked like this in London, says ex-ambassador’s wife
THE wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to the US, has claimed violence is making people scared to go out in London after her husband was badly beaten at an Underground station.
Sir Christopher, 74, is recovering in hospital with a suspected broken nose and tendon damage.
His wife Catherine, Baroness Meyer of Nine Elms, told The Daily Telegraph that Sir Christopher was attacked at Victoria station while taking the Tube to a think-tank meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
A boy and girl, aged 16 and
15, have been arrested in connection with the assault.
Lady Meyer plans to raise the issue of violent crime in the House of Lords.
She said: “I am angry on behalf of my husband. It’s just not right. London is such a beautiful, wonderful city. We can’t start worrying about walking in the streets at 3pm.”
Lady Meyer added that she had never worried about taking the Tube before, but she now believed that violent crime was getting worse in the capital.
“It appears gang-fighting and youths killing each other … there is a trend of something going on, people carrying knives and people being aggressive,” she continued. Nadhim Zahawi, the minister for children and families, said on Twitter that the attack was “sick” and challenged Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, to say what he was going to do.
The mayor has come under criticism after violence in the capital was shown to have risen sharply earlier this year.
There have been almost 50 fatal stabbings in London in 2018, while the overall number of knife offences in the capital rose by more than 20 per cent last year to 14,680.
If the trend continues, 2018 is on course to be London’s bloodiest year for more than a decade.
Lady Meyer said that her husband was left with an eye “like a golf ball”, and released a photograph of him covered in blood.
She said: “The CAT scan came back fine, there is no major head injury.
“But his face looks awful. His hand has big nail marks – his left hand, thank goodness. That needs to be X-rayed to see if there have been any tendons or nerve damage.
“What did they gain? Anger? At a well-dressed man?
“Maybe they didn’t like that, I have no idea. Attacking basically someone who is older and vulnerable.”
Lady Meyer said she was shocked that her husband’s alleged assailants were so young and that they had been released from custody.
She continued: “If they are just pickpockets, why did they beat someone up like that?
“We are pretty shell-shocked that at 3.30 in the afternoon in Victoria you can be attacked like this. He is a 70-year-old man who was minding his own business.”
A British Transport Police spokesman said: “Officers were called to Victoria Underground station yesterday after receiving reports that a man had been seriously assaulted.
“A 16-year-old boy from Hillingdon and a 15-year-old girl from Croydon were arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.
“They have been released under investigation while inquiries into the incident continue.
“A man in his 70s was taken to hospital, though his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing.”
Sir Christopher joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1966, serving in a number of posts.
He is best known for holding the post of British ambassador to the United States from 1997 until retirement in 2003.