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| Charged: Robin Christie |
Business consultant Robin Christie, 65, padlocked his bike to a makeshift gate to stop access, blocked the erection of fencing and said the wife: “ploughed on like an angry Zimbabwean land grabber.”
Solicitor Samuel Tempest Brooks, 43, and his company director wife Julia Stafford, 43, paid £850,000 for the Edwardian former water works within the Hampton Village Conservation Area, south-west London.
They secured council planning permission on appeal - despite Christie’s objections - for a huge subterranean development and two-storey extension at the unoccupied detached property, transforming it into a multi-million pound des res.
Fellow Housing Association residents of Hill House Drive also objected to the plans and the couple’s determination to demolish a boundary wall without council planning permission to create gated access through the residents’ close, costing parking spaces.
The residents were eventually victorious and works ground to a halt, with the development and the power couple’s marriage coming to an end and the property now back on the market for £999,950.
However, at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court last week a judge found Christie’s behaviour was “arrogant and intimidating,” and he was found guilty of harassing Julia between July 1 and September 28, 2024 and was bailed for probation reports.
Christie even summonsed the council leader of Richmond-upon-Thames, Gareth Roberts, to confirm the couple, particularly project manager Julia, were incorrect in trying to force through the gated access.
“The wall was in the conservation area and she had no permission to demolish this wall,” he told the two-day trial. “She believed it was implicit she could demolish the wall, but that was not the case.
“She was agitated and angry and would stress her opinion that she was correct. It would have been a breach of planning if she demolished the wall.”
The residents once even rushed to block the wall with their cars when a large digger truck and works crew, hired by the couple, arrived in their cul-de-sac to demolish it.
Tempers boiled on July 5, 2024 when Julia began erecting security fencing on the residents’ side of the dividing brick wall, claiming her land extended into Hill House Drive.
She began digging up a border of plants with her tree surgeon when Christie and a female neighbour approached.
“They began objecting to me erecting fencing and they were also verbally abusive. They told me I didn’t have permission and that I was causing problems and being a nuisance,” Julia told the trial.
“Robin Christie was inciting it. He was the instigator behind it and representing himself as some sort of legal authority and that he knew what he was talking about.
“He was falsely claiming that I didn’t own the land and had no right to erect the fencing and he followed me through a side gate onto the land I physically own.
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| Julia Stafford & Samuel Brooks |
“There were a lot of people verbally abusing me and I escaped the situation and removed myself to have some breathing space.
“The fencing was to protect people from the construction site and prevent them walking into an unsafe area.
“He was in my face and refusing to leave. I felt very threatened, violated and exposed and I kept being accused of criminal damage.”
She complained Christie followed her onto her property and the court viewed footage she recorded shouting: “Get off my land!”
In her judgement Deputy District Judge Patricia Evans said of Christie: “He took exception to their planning permission and where she placed the fence.
“His behaviour was arrogant and intimidating when marching into her garden.”
Julia added: “I am in full panic mode by now. Being followed onto my land is very threatening to me.
“When I went back to the fence it had been taken down. I put it back up and they took it down again.”
After the couple returned from a Greek family holiday Julia again began erecting the fencing on July 22.
“Robin Christie kept getting in my way, between the wall and the fence. He wanted to make it look like I was putting him in physical danger so it could be videoed as if I was assaulting him.”
A section of fence fell crashing to the ground as neighbours gathered around recording the dispute.
“Robin Christie was pushing it down as much as he could and I could not hold on anymore and I recall him ramming the fence into my legs.
“When the police came I told them I had been hurt. I had a cut on my foot and hand and the next day my legs were covered in bruises.
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| Christie's home (top) & wall (bottom) |
“I was shocked and disgusted that nobody came to help me and the police told me if I reinstated the fence they would arrest me for breach of the peace.”
Describing Christie’s behaviour during this incident, Judge Evans said “He can be seen pushing against the complainant and in the scuffle her hands and legs were hurt.
“Getting into a tussle over fencing Mr Christie was completely losing perspective and behaving in a high-handed manner.”
While the couple were in Greece with their young son and daughter Christie sent a letter to leading City firm McFarlanes, where Mr Brooks was a partner, complaining about his behaviour.
“It was intended as a threat to coerce me to do what he wanted,” the solicitor told the court. “It was absurd faux legalise.”
Christie made references to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Mr Brooks’ wife taking him down into “gutter-like behaviour.”
“It was intended to damage my career and cause the loss of all my income,” added Mr Brooks, now a partner at another City firm. “I thought it was hysterical nonsense.
“The gist was that my actions at the site implicated me in criminal damage and wider poor behaviour that made me liable to SRA sanction in the defendant’s view. The contents were utter bilge.”
Judge Evans ruled: “There is nothing conciliatory in the letter. The tone is unpleasant and it also increased Ms Stafford’s anxiety and she said in evidence she felt she was suffering PTSD.”
Julia once told husband Samuel to bring their title deeds to the site to convince the residents and police, but Christie disputed their accuracy, the court heard.
“The police were happy and in agreement, but Robin Christie kept insisting the title deeds were not exact to confuse the officers and convince the residents he was right,” said the Imperial College environmental technology graduate.
Julia also put together a makeshift gate out of two fence panels and padlocked it, but Christie then attached his bike, plus locks of his own to prevent her getting through.
This prompted tit-for-tat reprisals with Julia securing Christie’s bike to the fence with her own lock, culminating in her using a metal cutter and borrowed axle grinder to cut out the whole section.
“His bike with four locks attached to the fence barricaded me out of the property. It prevented me from opening it and accessing the side path to my house.
“Everyday I was verbally abused and it was like living in a cage. I was accosted by Robin Christie and two women telling me if I removed the locks it was criminal damage.
“I realised I had a cage built around me and that was the most traumatic day.
“I burst into tears and called the police. I did not know what to do and it was the most dehumanising experience to be in a cage treated like an animal.
“I’m pretty sure I had a panic attack. This was supposed to be a safe family home, but I was under constant threat from Robin Christie.”
She received a fixed penalty fine from the Met Police for cutting through one of Christie’s wire bike locks.
“Placing the bike and multiple locks is an act of harassment. Putting a lock on someone’s property and then watching them so he and the community can get their own way,” said Judge Evans.
“He was so busy championing the cause of the neighbours he lost perspective and pursued with increasing determination.”
Julia added: “I developed PTSD and became hyper-vigilant. I had insomnia and was terrified of arrest and hated all cameras and photos and became very secluded from friends and family.
“The fact I couldn’t have a safe family home made me ashamed that I couldn’t protect my family from another man trying to control.
“My son watched his mother be attacked and threatened with arrest, my daughter was afraid and the family dog was terrified. Myself and my husband struggled to find a way to get people to help us.
“He (Christie) is obsessed with me and the harassment started years before. He objected to our planning application and was fixated on me and the property.”
Christie told the trial: “I grew into becoming the spokesperson for the residents. I was the calmest head and sought to seek solutions and had no personal issue with Ms Stafford.
“This was a community trying to overcome an issue with someone difficult to deal with.
“Ms Stafford was hacking away at the plants quite aggressively and was quite rude and abusive to people standing there, accusing them of bad things.
“The residents had looked after that area and paid for its maintenance, but Ms Stafford was in an aggressive mood and did not want to hear sense.
“She was walking up and down muttering something like ‘little stupid people’ and the fence was later moved during a storm because it was dangerous.
“The letter I sent to her husband was not threatening. I was asking him to be accountable as a solicitor and human being because we had to come to some solution.
“They had grabbed land and taken possession of land.
“I did not push the fence into her, I was trying to stabilise it and she banged the fence into me. The police then picked up the fence and threw it back over her wall.
“She came back an hour later and reinstated the side gate, which she called a cage when giving evidence. She’s put the fence on land she does not own.
“I put a padlock around it and put a bike on the gate and locked it. I wanted to neutralise the gate,” Christie explained. “There was no harassment, there was no reason to put this fence up on our side of the boundary wall.
“The fence was eight feet into our land. This was a trespass.”
First-time offender Christie will be sentenced next month.
