18/06/2013

Saatchi Accepts Police Caution For Assault

Charles Saatchi has been given a police caution for assault, after he voluntarily attended a central London police station on Monday.

The caution was issued in relation to images published by the Sunday People, which showed the art collector holding his wife Nigella Lawson by the throat.

In an interview with London's Evening Standard on Monday, Saatchi had dismissed the incident as a "playful tiff".

He was quoted as saying: "...we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella's neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point.

"There was no grip, it was a playful tiff.

"Nigella's tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.

"We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled."

Officers from the community safety unit at Westminster investigated the incident after the images were publushed.

(MH/CD)

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