AG百家乐在线官网

A lawyer has been convicted of punching a fashion designer several times because he moved seats at the opera.

Matthew Feargrieve, 43, denied assaulting Ulrich Engler during a performance at the Royal Opera House in London on 7 October 2018 after Mr Engler moved Feargrieve's partner's jacket to claim an empty seat.

Feargrieve, an investment funds lawyer, attacked Mr Engler with a "constant flow of blows" but told a court he had just pushed him, claiming it was Mr Engler who started the row.

Mr Engler was attending the third performance of Ring Cycle by Wagner when he moved into the empty seat in the front row, which was next to Feargrieve and his partner Catherine Chandler, shortly before the beginning of the performance.

Mr Engler said he had moved into the seat three days earlier as well, before the second part of the Wagner four-part piece, and did so again on 7 October.

Charles Shelton, prosecuting, said Feargrieve saw the move as "poor form" and was annoyed by it.

Mr Engler, 56, told the court he was attacked within 10 minutes of the beginning of the performance, and was left with injuries to his left shoulder.

He said: "I was behind the couple slightly on the right. As there was an empty seat three days before, I did exactly the same that night and the couple did not object to it.

"I saw a coat on the seat and I asked the woman if she would mind me sitting next to her.

"She said yes she would mind. I asked her if she had paid for the empty seat and she said she had not."

Mr Engler, whose clients include the Countess of Derby, said he took the coat and placed it on Ms Chandler's lap before climbing onto the seat and apologising.

He said: "By then the conductor was up and the music started and I received blows to my left shoulder.

"I had never seen someone looking with so much anger and terror at me.

"He was up, leaning over the woman hitting me. While Mr Feargrieve was hitting me, he said, 'How dare you talk to my wife like this'.

"The only three things I said to this woman was would you mind if I sat next to you again, have you paid for the seat and that I was sorry.

"It wasn't just a few blows, it was an assault. It was a constant flow of blows."

Ms Chandler tried to calm Feargrieve down, the court heard, before the couple left.

Lisa Wilding, defending Feargrieve, said he was protecting his partner and dislocated his arm in the process.

Ms Wilding told the court Mr Engler threw the coat on the floor and pushed Ms Chandler as she bent down to pick it up.

Ms Wilding said: "When she did that, you physically shoved her back. I suggest that the motion of pushing her as she was getting her coat pushed her into Feargrieve.

"I suggest she went forward again and his arm went behind her and he tried to reach out to you to push you away."

Mr Engler told City of London Magistrates' Court it was "fabrication".

He said: "I put it into the woman's lap. I never saw the coat on the floor."

Ms Chandler, who has been in a relationship with Feargrieve for 13 years, said she was pushed after Mr Engler put her coat on the floor.

She told the court: "I was propelled back with such force that I collided into him [Feargrieve].

"I remember some sort of push or punch to my side. I said I've just been assaulted."

Feargrieve said: "I got the impression that something was causing her to push back.

"It was done with some force, it wasn't a casual movement like she had inadvertently brushed against me."

He told the court he reacted to show that Ms Chandler wasn't alone at the opera that evening and said he did not punch Mr Engler, but attempted to push him.

He said: "It was appropriate for the circumstances.

"I reacted spontaneously in an attempt to protect my female partner against what I perceived to be an act of aggression."

Mr Shelton accused Feargrieve of not crying out in pain when he dislocated his arm because of "adrenaline" from having thrown a punch.

Feargrieve replied: "I was at the opera, I wasn't a yob in a football stand. I was trying, ineffectually it turns out, to deal with a situation, which as I saw it was something happening to Catherine.

"I wasn't enraged."

Ms Wilding said Mr Engler made a counter allegation after his arrest due to the impact to his reputation and that the whole trial was "damage limitation".

The court was told that Mr Engler was diagnosed with PTSD after the incident, and that it had affected his creative abilities, saying he is "still nervous when in public and around strangers I am fearful. I am not the easy-going person I was."

Freargrieve was found guilty of common assault and will be sentenced in January.