Wednesday 31 May 2023

Houseguest Accused Of Groping Mum And Three Young Daughters

A Pinewood Film Studios audio editor groped a married mother and three of her daughters while a houseguest during renovations to his £1m home, a court heard today.

University of Chester graduate Harry Trevithick, 33, denies sexually assaulting the middle-aged mum and the girls aged 17; 15 and 12 years-old.


Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court was told married Trevithick and his wife Lily stayed in the annexe of the family’s £1.9m six-bedroom Putney home during a loft extension at their Battersea property.


He has an assistant editor credit for TV series ‘Zapped’, plus sound department credits for video games Hitman 2; Total War: Three Kingdoms and The Division 2.


Prosecutor Richard Jory KC told the jury the 15 year-old daughter revealed to her mother on August 16, 2019 that Trevithick’s behaviour the night before troubled her.


“She told her mother he followed her around the house and touched her and offered her alcohol and tried to kiss her when she was alone with him.


“The parents arranged a meeting to discuss this with him and confront him about it, plus the mother saying she had also been touched.”


Trevithick and his wife moved out of the annexe and six months later the parents told the 12 year-old what happened.


“The girl ran out of the room in tears and told her mother of an incident in her bedroom when the defendant came upstairs, sat on her bed and touched her thigh,” explained the KC.


The 17 year-old daughter then also came forward and said Trevithick touched her and the police were in formed.


He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexually assaulting the mother; one count of sexually assaulting the 17 year-old; three counts of sexually assaulting the 15 year-old and one count of sexually assaulting the 12 year-old.


The charges relate to between January 1, 2017 and September 1, 2019 and include incidents before Trevithick moved into the annexe.


Giving evidence from behind a screen the mother-of-four, whose youngest daughter is not involved in the case, told the jury: “In 2019 Harry started becoming over-familiar.


“He was helping my husband with gardening or DIY and I was baking in the kitchen when he came through.


“I was bending over, taking something out of the oven and I felt his hands on my hips and turned around completely shocked.


“It was very close to my bottom and I jumped up and had a hot tray out of the oven.


“I thought I may have misunderstood and it was my mistake. I was confused so didn’t talk to anyone.”


She said she second incident was in the hallway. “He was leaving and asked for a hug, which is not unusual and he said: ‘Oops, nearly kissed there.’


“That made me uncomfortable. We did kiss, but not on the lips, very close and I questioned myself if I encouraged that behaviour.”


The third incident occurred when the woman was looking for a book relating to her Masters course in the house’s study. 


“He came over to the bookcase and put his hands on my hip area.”


The 12 year-old gave a police video interview and explained Trevithick was attending a party hosted by her parents.


“It was common for Harry to always drink alcohol and he had seven or eight beers,” she said. “He came into my room and and said I should come back to the party.


“He put his hand on my thigh and I kind of just froze and he said: ‘Your too young to be tired.’


“I was just crying because I felt so uncomfortable. I moved my desk and put it in front of the door and collapsed into bed crying.”


Mr Jory told the court the charge relating to the 17 year-old daughter reflects multiple incidents.


“She says he touched her on a number of occasions, in particular on the bottom and made comments.


“He would sometimes hug her and put his hands around her and slide his hands down to her bottom and touch her hips and waist.


“She says it happened a lot and he also made crude comments to her and ask intimate questions about her relationship with her boyfriend.”


The 15 year-old was groped when alone in the house with Trevithick, said the prosecutor.


“He touched her and told her to kiss him when she was babysitting and sat on the sofa with a glass and bottle of wine.


“He offered her alcohol, but she declined and on the stairs he touched her bottom firmly for a number of seconds.


“In the kitchen he touched her again on the waist and before going to bed grabbed her waist forcefully and asked her for a kiss.”


Trevithick’s lawyer Ali Bajwa KC told the jury his client, of Birley Street, Battersea was a man of good character and innocent of the charges.


“There would have been hugs and kissing on the cheek and it is the defendant’s case that every time physical contact occurred it was wholly innocent.


“His case is that none of the contact was sexual. The family have viewed that innocent contact in an unfavourable light.”


Trial continues…………

Monday 29 May 2023

Teen Kicked Woman Unconscious At Chelmsford Train Station

A teenage thug, who kicked a female train passenger unconscious by the station's ticket barriers, has been locked-up for three years.

Levis Lewis, 19, dragged the 49 year-old victim across the concourse of Chelmsford railway station, returning to kick her repeatedly again as she lay out cold.

PC Michael Weller, of British Transport Police (BTP), said afterwards: “Lewis launched a vicious and unprovoked attack on a woman, for which he deserves to spend his next years behind bars.”

Lewis, of Brassie Wood, Chelmsford pleaded guilty to one count of attempted grievous bodily harm.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard it was 11.30pm on October 14, last year when the victim entered the Essex rail station and began speaking to two people on the stairwell, one of whom was Lewis.

After a few minutes, he grabbed her arm, dragged her across the concourse floor and left her lying between the ticker barriers.

Lewis then walked away from the victim, but returned moments later and repeatedly kicked her in the head, causing her to fall unconscious.

He paused his attack temporarily to pick up some belongings that fell from his pockets, then kicked her in the head a further three times and left the station.

Members of the public discovered the victim and called an ambulance. 

She was taken to hospital for treatment to head and face wounds she sustained during the attack.

An investigation was launched by BTP officers to trace Lewis and following a public appeal which included CCTV images of him, he was identified and arrested in January.

Saturday 27 May 2023

Who's Laughing now?: Award-Winning Comedy Producer Jimmy Mulville Caught By 'CyclingMikey'

Flipping The Bird: Mulville
Award-winning television producer Jimmy Mulville was caught on camera flipping his middle finger to road safety activist ‘CyclingMikey’, who caught him using his mobile phone while driving a £140,000 Aston Martin.

The 68 year-old writer and comedian, who is also co-founder and managing director of Hat Trick Productions, claims he was reading texts during a family emergency.


City of London Magistrates’ Court heard Mulville mouthed: ‘Go f*** yourself,’ to cyclist Mike Van Erp, 52, as he leaned in to record the Liverpool-born funnyman.


He was convicted on Thursday of using a handheld mobile phone on July 29, last year on Battersea Bridge Road, while driving his silver six-litre V-12  Aston Martin Rapide.


Mulville, who lives in a £12m Earl’s Court house in Collingham Gardens, Kensington and Chelsea, was fined £1,000, with £625 costs and a £400 victim surcharge.


He also received six penalty points to the three already on his licence.

Camera: Mike Van Erp


He was prosecuted after Van Erp recorded him on his GoPro camera while cycling across the bridge and reported him to the police.


Mulvile, who performed for Cambridge Footlights when studying French and Classics at the university’s Jesus College, did not attend the trial due to ill health, but was represented by a lawyer.


Hat Trick Productions are responsible for hits shows ‘Father Ted’; ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’; ‘Have I Got News For You’; ‘Drop The Dead Donkey’ and ‘Room 101’.


More recently Mulville he has produced ‘Celebrity Mastermind’; ‘Bloodlands’; ‘Derry Girls’ ‘The Kumars’ and ‘Episodes’.


Van Erp told the court it was 11.25am when he caught Mulville. “I was riding my bike northbound on Battersea Bridge Road past the queueing traffic. I was going back home.


“As I was filtering past I saw a nice car ahead of me and it caught my attention because it was turned a little bit to the left, towards the kerb.


“The other traffic moved on and the driver of this car was a little slow to react to the moving traffic. The driver started driving again, not quite hitting the kerb and accelerating hard.


“It was an unusually harsh acceleration and I thought to myself it was symptomatic of a distracted driver and I wondered if he was on the phone.


“The queue came to a halt and again the driver moved off after a delay in what is known colloquially as a ‘WhatsApp Gap’ and the driver stopped behind the queue.


“I came up to the driver’s side window of this Aston Martin and saw the driver was busy typing on his phone.


“I always run a GoPro camera while I’m cycling and he was typing with both hands on the phone and the screen was lit up.


“I leaned in close to the window  to make sure my GoPro got good evidential shots of what the driver was doing.


“I think his emails were open and he was reading or answering emails and when he saw me he immediately closed that email.”


The magistrates watched the footage of Mulville raising his middle finger to Van Erp, who said: “At this point he gives me the bird and he is mouthing something to me, which might be: ‘Go f*** yourself.’


“He was on a narrow bridge lane and a red route.”


Mulville was disqualified from driving in 2020 after accumulating penalty points and the same Aston Martin was involved in a Van Erp report to the police in 2019.


However, the cyclist cannot recall if the driver, who he caught using a phone while driving in Hyde Park, was Mulville.


He denied the suggestion of Mulville’s lawyer Sam Thomas that he was deliberately “targeting” the Aston Martin.


“It is clear you are commentating on your footage as you are going along,” said the lawyer. “You initially stop and specifically go to the window.


“You are setting out to try and catch people,” added Mr Thomas. “There is a suggesting you were targeting this driver.”


Van Erp denied the suggestion, adding: “I am not spending nearly as much time on this as you think. I was not following this person, I was on my route home.”


Mr Thomas asked: “Did you target this driver because he was driving an expensive car? You have referred to it as a ‘nice car’ and you recognised it as an Aston Martin, yes?”


The lawyer told the magistrates: “This was entirely out of character for father-of-four Mr Mulville. There were some family concerns at the time and he did look at text messages.


“You have heard Mr Van Erp say he did manage to catch people on a daily basis. That is not an excuse, but puts it into context.


“Mr Mulville is a man of means and he provided his identity to being the driver.”


As a performer, three times married Mulville - who has received a BAFTA for his creative contribution to television - also starred in Channel 4’s ‘Chelmsford 123’ and 80’s ITV sitcom ‘That’s Love.’


Twenty years ago he and his ex-wife Denise O’Donoghue, 68, sold a minority stake in Hat Trick for £23m and it continues to enjoy annual turnovers of approximately £30m.

Thursday 25 May 2023

China In Your Hand: Drunken Pensioner Injures Wife With Flying Plate

A drunken octogenarian has received a suspended prison sentence for cutting his long-suffering wife’s foot with a flying dinner plate during a row.

Tommy Michael Coggins, 80, had been drinking outside the matrimonial home of forty-six years and swore at wife Maureen, 79, before hurling the china plate, which caused a wound needing hospital treatment.


Their marriage is now over and the pensioner is sofa-surfing, with hopes he can join his son in Somerset having been made subject to a five-year restraining order, prohibiting contact with Maureen.


Coggins, of Geoffrey House, Pardoner Street, Southwark fought the charge, but was convicted of inflicting actual bodily harm on March 20.


Prosecutor Colette Hanna told Croydon Magistrates’ Court it was just after 7.00pm when the defendant came back inside the Abbeville Road, Clapham address.


“He was rude to her and called her a: F***ing c***,’ and told her not to look at him, which was a normal occurrence.


“He said: ‘I wouldn’t think twice about murdering you and when his wife said she was going to call the police, he said: ‘F*** the police.’


“Mrs Coggins ran upstairs until he calmed down and when she returned he was holding a white china plate that he threw at her.


“She says he was aiming for her face, but missed and hit her foot, causing a quite deep laceration and a large amount of bleeding.”


Their son witnessed the incident and Maureen shouted: “I can’t take this anymore,” and the police were called.


Throughout the trial Coggins claimed he did not deliberately throw the plate and the injury his wife suffered was an accident and was convicted on the basis his actions were reckless.


Afterwards Mrs Coggins said: “This left me shaken and nervous. I am terrified of my husband, who is an alcoholic that drinks daily and is unpredictable.


“He has hurt me in the past and I genuinely believe Tommy will kill me if he sees me again. I know he will return to the address and I am scared he will hurt me.”


Denying he has an alcohol problem Coggins claims he was verbally abused in the matrimonial home for an hour before the incident and had no intention to hurt his wife.


His lawyer, who refused to give his name, told the court: “This was an impulsive, spontaneous, short-lived assault. A reckless act with no intention to injure.


“There was physical injury, a two centimetre laceration and she did attend hospital.


“The Probation Service says he is not an alcoholic and and he takes five pills a day for medical issues including diabetes and arthritis.


“He does not intend to have anything further to do with his ex-wife.”


Magistrate Karim Hemani announced: “This does pass the custody threshold, however we are going to suspend it.”


Coggins received twenty-four weeks imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months and must comply with a six-month Alcohol Treatment Requirement.


He must observe up to twenty-four days of a recommended activity requirement and was ordered to pay £500 costs, with a £154 victim surcharge and pay his wife £150 compensation.

Tuesday 23 May 2023

Nightmare Neighbour Sentenced

A nightmare neighbour, who harassed the couple living opposite him - shouting at the wife: “Show me your knickers,” and spraying the words ‘Liar’ in shaving foam over their car - has been sentenced.

Omar Yasin, 61, also followed the wife to work, screamed in the husband’s face and asked him: “Are you getting enough? I can help you out with your wife.”


Disabled Yasin, of Station Road, Hampton fought the case, but was convicted of harassing Alistair Patterson and Katerina Kim in August and September, last year.


He was also found guilty of two counts of displaying writing, with intent to cause harassment, on September 20, last year in the carpark outside the couple’s Station Road apartment.


Earlier this year at Wimbledon Magistrates Court Yasin was placed on a twelve-month Community Order and fined £180, with £200 costs, plus a £114 victim surcharge.


He was also made subject to a two-year restraining order, prohibiting contact with the couple.


Katerina told the trial trouble started when the defendant - who she knows as ‘Mark’ - spotted her visiting sister changing in her son’s bedroom.


“Mark saw her in her underwear and on the same day he went to see Alistair to say he saw me in my underwear and would be going to see me at work at Waitrose.


“I was panicking as to why he would want to say he saw me in my underwear.”


The next day Yasin turned up at the busy store. “I ran to the back and he followed me and I shouted at him: ‘Stop following me,’ I was nervous and scared.


“I wondered why he would follow me for three days and my manager told me: ‘He is mental, aggressive, not stable. We are not dealing with him, we are going to call the police.


“I still do not know why he is doing this to me.”


She recalled another incident on September 10, outside her block. “I was passing our parking spot and he shouted: ‘Show me your knickers.’


“I thought he was becoming dangerous, that he could rape or harm me.”


On September 20 Yasin sprayed the couple’s vehicle with shaving foam. “He sprayed the word ‘Liar’ all over the car.


“I felt like it was a horror movie. It was horrible to see, I was shaking.


“I don’t feel free going out. I always look behind myself, I can’t escape him. He is always there, he is always watching me.”


Alistair confirmed he once had a friendly relationship with Yasin, who was a walking companion during lockdown. “Mark lives on the top floor of the next-door block and the flats look at each other.


“He complained to me about my wife’s behaviour because there was an incident at Waitrose and he saw a person at our window in underwear that he thought was my wife.


“He referred to my wife as ‘filth’ and I was shocked. He was clearly following our comings and goings from his window and followed my wife three times to Waitrose.


“He once called down to me: ‘Are you getting enough? I can help you out with your wife.’


“I assumed this was a sexual context and I was in shock,” Alistair told the trial. “I told him I was not having this conversation and got in my car and left.”


On August 27 Yasin aggressively confronted the husband. “He dashed across the road and cornered me and put his face alongside mine and was shouting at me.


“He was very aggressive, very unpleasant. He said he was humiliated by my wife who shouted at him in Waitrose.


“He repeated the underwear story and refused to believe it wasn’t my wife.


“He mentioned that my wife was lovely and repeated a story of when he first saw us together  and I was the most horrible thing he had ever seen.


“He said I should control my wife and that he would box my ears, repeating: ‘You don’t want me as your enemy,’ and that he wanted me out of my home.”


Yasin admitted making clucking chicken noises from his flat window when he saw Alistair and the husband added: “He shouted out that I was effluent and a coward.


“One day he was spraying my car with the word ‘Liar’ with shaving foam, while wearing his Army combat gear, which he regularly does.


“I felt unsafe and I was not sleeping well, but I stuck to my normal routine because I did not want to be beaten by it.


“He did say he enjoyed the process of harassing us.”


Yasin denied threatening violence or making lewd comments to Katerina, saying he had lived in the flat for seventeen years, often chatting to the couple from the roof of his building.


“The first I knew about it was when Katerina shouted at me in the shop. I stepped back in disbelief and dismay and walked out of the shop.


“I was confused and a little bit peeved. All of a sudden I am unwelcome at the local supermarket and the neighbours became most unwelcome.


“They came to my landlord and told him to get rid of me.”


Yasin admitted foaming the couple’s car. “I put shaving foam on the car as a protest,” he told the court.


“Waitrose eventually gave me a barring notice. I felt at an absolute loss, I had nowhere else to go.


“I never followed Katerina or any member of her family, ever.”

Sunday 21 May 2023

HMP Wandsworth Officer Sex Assault Trial: No Verdict

A jury in the trial of a prison officer accused of twice putting his hand inside a drunken female colleague’s bikini have failed to reach a verdict. 

Joseph Dawson, 27, was a pool party guest at a summer get together for HMP Wandsworth staff and was described by one witness as a “shark in the pool.”


After almost eight hours of deliberation a Croydon Crown Court jury failed to reach a majority verdict on either count.


Dawson, of St. Catherines Court, Rosefield Road, Staines-upon-Thames fought the charges and will now have to wait to see if there will be a re-trial.


He pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting the fellow prison officer between July 24 and 25, 2021 at the south London home of a female colleague.


The Crown Prosecution Service asked for time to consider if they would continue pursuing the charges.


Dawson will continue to remain on bail.

Wednesday 17 May 2023

HMP Wandsworth Officer Was: "A Shark In The Pool"

A HMP Wandsworth officer, accused of twice molesting a drunken bikini-clad colleague at a summer staff party, was described as “a shark in the pool” by another guest, a court heard.

Joseph Dawson, 27, was seen splashing around in his boxer shorts lifting, dunking and playfully slapping the rear’s of female prison officers during the all-day pool party on July 24, 2021.


Prosecutor Kathryn Hirst told Croydon Crown Court Dawson and the complainant sat on a two-seater outdoor couch on the patio opposite prison officer Vedan Bolaky, 41, and her husband Keith Sowerby, 63.


“They noticed him putting his hand down her bikini top and massaging her breast and then putting his hand down her bikini bottom. They made eye contact and he quickly removed his hand.


“Shortly afterwards the complainant is seen on all fours being pushed upstairs by this defendant and some of the female guests ‘headed him off at the pass’ and made sure nothing happened.”


Mr Sowerby told the jury the celebration was also a surprise birthday party for his wife - a HMP Wandsworth prison officer - and he noted Dawson’s behaviour.


“I did feel he was a shark in the pool and felt his behaviour was a bit predatory. He was manhandling the women, lifting them up and throwing them about.


“I was not impressed and I was the only sober person there as I do not drink,” he added, finding himself seated opposite Dawson and the complainant at around midnight.


“She was very drunk and he was helping her up onto the deck and she was flopping all over the place,” explained Mr Sowerby. “She sort of flopped across his chest.


“I saw Mr Dawson’s hand inside her bikini top massaging her right breast for about twenty to thirty seconds and she was out cold.


“He slipped his hand down her stomach and inside the band of her bikini at the top. He realised he was being watched, I think, and pulled his hand out.


“She sprang up and was all over the place. I think she woke up and realised something wasn’t quite right.”


He later witnessed Dawson trying to get the woman upstairs. “She was on all fours and he had his hand on her bottom, pushing her up the stairs.


“I alerted people to get upstairs and keep an eye on her because he had been groping her on the patio. I know a full-on grope when I see it, it was out of order.


“As far as I am concerned she was unconscious. She was not aware of what was going on and it was not consensual.”


His wife, Vedan Bolaky, told the trial: “There was a female member of staff he lifted up and she said: ’No, no, no,’ and he threw her into the water.


“Later I saw the complainant was drunk and was not really able to speak and Mr Dawson’s hand was near her breast area, the hand was inside.


“Then his hand was over the border of her bikini bottoms.”


Party host Jessie Thorpe, whose overground pool was enjoyed by her fellow HMP Wandsworth officers, said: “He was very touchy feely with the girls in the pool. One girl was leaning over the side and he slapped her bum.”


She did not witness the patio incident, but later saw Dawson upstairs when the complainant was passed out in the main bedroom. 


By now the drunken female prison officer was somehow naked. “I was concerned for her so I slept on top of the covers next to her.”


The complainant has no memory of the incidents, having consumed three-quarters of a litre of vodka, plus shots at the party hosted by a colleague for mainly Echo Wing staff.


Describing Dawson, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault between July 24 and 25, 2021, she said: “He was quite a touchy person, he was known for that, but not in a strange way.


“He would hug the girls and pick them up.”


She brought a variety of bikini’s for the overground pool party. “He said that one was particularly nice and I should put it on.


“I think he said something about my bum looking nice in it, I think he slapped my bum. I was not annoyed, but didn’t like him doing it.”


Recalling little of the later evening she explained: “I was drinking vodka, I think. I came with a bottle of vodka and I did not see it after that and it was only me drinking it.


“The host, Jessie Thorpe said: ‘Drink as much as you want, I have loads of spare rooms,’ and that is why I drove there.” 


Dawson claims she consented to him touching her breasts while they were in the pool and spread her legs towards him, allowing him to touch her intimately.


Sobbing behind a screen as she was cross-examined the prison officer insisted: “I wouldn’t let him do that to me. I don’t think it happened.”


She also denied pushing her breasts into Dawson’s face when they returned to the patio area.


The defendant says she consented to touching and allowed him to kiss her neck during the party, admitting he touched her breast in front of a couple on the patio, but over her bikini.


Ms Thorpe admitted Dawson’s behaviour was “hot gossip” at HMP Wandsworth the following day.


Dawson has suggested the complainant made the sexual assault allegation to cover-up her own consensual behaviour - particularly as she had recently started dating another prison officer.


Prosecutor Ms Hirst added: “These were mostly all prison officers at the party at the home of a colleague, who had an overground pool in the back garden.


“Everybody was enjoying themselves and having a good time and at various stages the complainant got into the pool and Mr Dawson got in the pool with her and picked her up and slapped her bottom, which she describes as playful.


“He was very intent on her wearing a bikini and she was wearing a flimsy bikini and was entitled to do that and to have a good time.


“She had a lot to drink and she was very, very drunk. She drank an awful lot and had northing to eat and was so drunk she has no recollection of what happened to her.”


When the woman’s prison officer colleagues told her what happened the next day she reported Dawson to the police.


Dawson, of St. Catherines Court, Rosefield Road, Staines-upon-Thames made no comment when questioned.


Trial continues…………