NOT GUILTY: City Solicitor Cleared Of Dancefloor Punch

Not Guilty: Gush

A City lawyer, who insisted he was defending himself during a dance floor confrontation with an investment banker, has been cleared of GBH.

Property solicitor Barnaby Gush, 30, admitted throwing the punch that fractured the jaw of Jonathan Luke, 32, but said he was acting in self-defence.

At Inner London Crown Court he claimed the banker was drunk and making himself a nuisance at the Ned’s members-only basement Vault bar.

The trial heard Mr Luke aimed a foul-mouthed gay slur towards Gush - apparently due to the defendant’s flamboyant dancing - but he denied this and insisted he was not intoxicated or causing trouble.

After the week-long trial the jury today found property solicitor Gush, of The Merchant Building, Wharf Road, Angel, Islington, not guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on September 24, 2021.

The Newcastle University architecture graduate claimed Mr Luke shouted: “F*** off you little p***,” as he moved from group to group after midnight.

However, Loughborough University graduate Mr Luke - who needed two metal plates in his jaw - said he was no more than “reasonably tipsy during his company’s end-of-Summer night out.

Gush’s account was that Mr Luke twice bumped into him on the dance floor before moving aggressively towards him as the pair “squared up” in the early hours.

Mr Luke told the court his evening began at The Happenstance, near St. Paul’s Cathedral. “There was a free bar. It was a drinking event.”

After “two or three” beers, “one or two” glasses of wine, plus a shot his group continued drinking cocktails at the Ned, near the Bank of England.

“I was with colleagues and having a nice time and I remember feeling this punch at the bottom of my jaw from the right. It felt like a big, sudden impact, a shock,” he explained.

Punched: Jonathan Luke

“I was not braced for any impact and it was very sore. I felt a bit of a hole in my mouth and it was where the jaw had displaced.

“I hoped I could sleep it off, but the police called in the morning and suggested I should go to A&E.

“I could not swallow and two metal plates were put in to crack the lower jaw back into place.”

However, Gush’s lawyer Aisling Byrnes suggested: “You were very drunk that evening. Do you recall wandering around the dance floor going from group to group?”

Mr Luke denied this, but the lawyer added: “You were making a little bit of a nuisance of yourself on the dance floor. You made physical contact with Mr Gush while he was dancing and it is no dispute he hit you.

“He and his friend moved away and you backed into him harder than before while he was dancing.”

Mr Luke denied Gush’s account of events, insisting: “I didn’t really bump into anyone.”

He denied shouting the foul-mouthed gay slur. “Had you seen him dancing flamboyantly with his friends?” asked the lawyer.

Gush says he told Mr Luke: “Why do you keep bumping into me? Leave me alone.”

The court heard there was talk of “let’s go outside,” with Gush recalling telling the taller Mr Luke: “I’d rather you f*** off.”

The six-foot two inch banker denied moving towards the defendant with his right arm and shoulder at Gush’s “neck and chest height” moments before the blow.

Security staff intervened and called the police as Mr Luke, who had blood on his chin and shirt, was being attended to.

Prosecutor Lewis MacDonald told the jury Gush replied “no comment” when interviewed by police. 

“He now suggests he was acting in self-defence because he felt threatened by Mr Luke, but the complainant did not commit any act of violence and we say nothing justified the defendant punching him in the face with such force.

“Witnesses describe them on the dance floor squaring-up and Mr Gush punching Mr Luke in the face and is heard shouting: ‘Let’s take this outside,’ or: ‘Let’s have a fight.’

“Security  staff at The Ned immediately intervened and separated the men and called the police, waiting with Mr Gush until he was arrested.