Solicitors for Eric Bellquist say that he was in the US on May 5 when a jogger was seen on CCTV pushing a woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge, west London Solicitors for Eric Bellquist say that he was in the US on May 5 when a jogger was seen on CCTV pushing a woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge, west London A wealthy US investment banker has been arrested by police searching for a jogger who shoved a woman into the path of a bus in London. Video footage of the incident, on Putney Bridge, west London, on May 5, went viral this week. Eric Bellquist, 41, a partner at the Mayfair private equity firm Hutton Collins, was arrested on Thursday and released under investigation. The banker said yesterday that he had “irrefutable proof” that he was in the US at the time of the incident.
Moment the jogger appears to knock woman into the road
Police released CCTV footage this week showing the female pedestrian being pushed in front of the 430 bus by a male jogger at about 7.40am. Scotland Yard originally said that they had arrested a 50-year-old man in Chelsea on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm but later corrected the age to 41. Duncan Lewis Solicitors, acting for Mr Bellquist, confirmed that he was arrested in relation to the assault and made clear that he intends to prove his innocence. A statement issued yesterday said: “Our client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof he was in the United States at the time of the incident. Consequently we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation.” Mr Bellquist works from Hutton Collins’s office in Pall Mall, central London, and lives in a red-brick mansion block in Chelsea. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and previously worked for Lehman Brothers, the financial services firm that filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Nobody at Hutton Collins was available yesterday to comment on Mr Bellquist’s arrest. His profile on the firm’s website states: “Eric Bellquist joined Hutton Collins in 2002. Over the course of various transactions he has represented Hutton Collins in the leisure, media/telecom and manufacturing sectors". He currently represents Hutton Collins on the boards of Byron Hamburgers and Wagamama and was responsible for the firm’s investment in Caffè Nero. “Prior to Hutton Collins, Eric worked in the European leveraged finance and sponsor coverage group at Lehman Brothers. “Eric is a graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder.” A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “The man arrested for grievous bodily harm in connection with an assault on Putney Bridge on May 5 has been released under investigation pending further inquiries.”
source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/eric-bellquist-of-hutton-collins-denies-he-is-jogger-who-pushed-woman-in-front-of-bus-on-putney-bridge-752nhf8bv
