Cleared of love triangle assault

A finance professor accused of punching a 77-year-old businessman had been stalked by the alleged victim who is a ‘manipulative bully,’ a court heard.

Prof Christopher Hennessy, 51, allegedly attacked Old Harrovian sporting hospitality specialist Robert Titchener-Barrett on the academic’s doorstep, leaving him with bleeding head wounds.

But Hennessy, who lectures at the London Business School, denies assaulting Mr Titchener-Barrett at his town-house on Portobello Road, Notting Hill, on November 2, 2019.

Mr Titchener-Barrett told jurors he had a ‘proper affair’ with Hennessy’s Swedish girlfriend Fanny Forssell Forsberg, 28, after he hired the young architect to design a stained glass window.

But Hennessy’s barrister Trevor Burke branded the alleged victim a ‘psycho’ and said his claims of a sexual relationship with Ms Forsberg a were a ‘fantasy’.

Mr Burke claimed Mr Titchener-Barrett had stalked the couple and sent Ms Forsberg harassing messages on Twitter.

He said Hennessy was acting in self-defence, and Mr Titchener-Barrett had thrown the first punch, then put Hennessy in a bear hug.

Mr Burke said: ‘I’m here defending a 51-year-old man of impeccable character.

‘A 0.5cm wide cut, it’s a hugely disproportionately big deal for him. On the face of it, it’s a trivial crime, but to him, it’s massive.

‘He risks, maybe a small risk, but on the face of it he risks losing his good name, his reputation, his good character, which he holds very dearly.

‘The question is if he was, or may have been, acting in self defence, he is not guilty.

‘Mr Hennessy is now 51, then 49, he is what lawyers call a man of good character, it doesn’t fit him that comfortably, because he is a man of impeccable character.

‘He has spent much of his life in an ivory tower of intellectuals, filled with bright students and intelligent colleagues.’

Mr Burke said Mr Titchener-Barrett had sent numerous threatening messages to Ms Forsberg, threatening to harm himself and saying God had told him to bring up her children.

The barrister said the elderly man had gone to the couple’s home on 1 November 2019, and told Mr Hennessy he was having anal sex with Ms Forsberg, which Mr Titchener-Barrett denies.

Mr Burke said Mr Titchener-Barret is ‘a manipulative bully of the very worst kind, who seeks to control everyone who comes into his orbit.

He continued: ‘His attitude to women, defenceless women in particular, is prehistoric. He is cruel, and vindictive.

‘He will take your life and destroy it because it gives him pleasure.

‘There is no reasoning with him, no logic, to his actions, no compassion within him, and no-one can control him, no-one.

‘Christopher tried to reason with him, tried to speak to him, tried to reach him, to no avail.

‘Christopher, with all his intelligence, was no match for this cunning man full of bile.’

Mr Burke said Mr Titchener-Barrett told the jury ‘a number of barefaced lies’, including that he had received stitches for his head-wound, which doctors had treated with glue.

The barrister said Ms Forsberg had put a baseball bat by the door to protect herself from Mr Titchener-Barrett, who was going to their home multiple times a day and messaging her in the middle of the night.

Ms Forsberg told Hennessy about the messages, and said: ‘Don’t be jealous, he’s old and disgusting’, the court heard.

The court heard Ms Forsberg was cuddling with Hennessy on the sofa at night when the doorbell rang, which made the architect say: ‘How does he know where I live, I never told him.’

Mr Burke said: ‘His message is, if you don’t do exactly what I say, I will destroy you.

‘He had followed her home, he was stalking her, harassing her, and that was not enough.’

Mr Burke told the jury Mr Titchener-Barrett sent messages to Ms Forsberg saying she had ‘f-cked him and thrown him away’, which he denies.

She later sent him a message saying ‘we want nothing more to do with you, do not contact us again’, the court heard.

Mr Burke said: ‘She can’t even walk her child around the block, without this lunatic jumping out of the bushes.

‘This has wrecked havoc on his family, he has destroyed them and, with the Covid problem as well, it has been torture for over two years.

‘He is a liar, a fantasist, wholly unworthy of belief.

Mr Burke told the jury: ‘You know what to do, do it.’

Prosecutor Alexander Agbanu said: ‘Never am I going to pretend Mr Titchener-Barrett is someone who has acted commendably at any time during the time he was communicating with the defendant’s partner in the backstory of this case, the communications speak for themselves.

‘The injuries of Mr Titchener-Barrett were entirely consistent with Mr Titchener-Barrett placing his hands in front of his face to protect his face.

‘What he described could be seen as an instinctive response to being punched in the face.

‘The defendant’s injuries appear to be consistent with someone trying to grab the defendant to keep him under restraint.

‘We know that Ms Forsberg was present, and the defendant in his own words says that she untangled him from Mr Titchener-Barrett.

‘Doesn’t that sound like a benign way of saying she pulled him away?

‘The prosecution submit that there was provocation, that caused the defendant to act as an aggressor, and in fact he was not acting in self-defence.’

Hennessy, of Redcliffe Square, West Brompton, denies assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Titchener-Barrett is an alumnus of Oxford’s Brasenose College, and a former fast bowler for Middlesex County Cricket team

Hennessy is a former Associate Professor and Finance Area Chair at the Walter A Haas School of Business at the University of California in Berkeley and a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

The jury later acquitted professor Christopher Hennessy of assaulting Robert Titchener-Barrett after deliberating for an hour.

The judge, Mr Recorder Jeremy Dein, QC, had described Mr Hennessy to the jury as an ‘academic and truly an honourable gentleman.’

He said: ‘Robert Titchener-Barrett is 77, and he is you may think, a detestable individual, and the prosecution have all but conceded that, but he is also entitled to a jury verdict according to the evidence.’

The judge called the case ‘a classic example of why we have juries in this case’.

Jurors heard Mr Titchener-Barrett had contacted Ms Forsberg the day before the trial was expected to begin last year and contacted her again before the trial began on Monday.

He claimed he was ‘just trying to find out, out of curiosity, what she was up to’.

Mr Hennessy drew the sign of the cross on his chest before the jury walked into the room then embraced his barrister after the verdict was announced.