A descendant of Queen Victoria who was the main suspect in the notorious ‘Putney pusher’ case has been found dead.
Banker Nicholas Brandram, 44, is the grandson of Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark, known as Lady Katherine Brandram, who was a great-granddaughter of the former monarch.
He was under investigation for the crime, which remained unsolved, in which a woman was pushed into the path of a bus on Putney bridge in 2009.
He was arrested in June this year and released under investigation almost a decade after the seemingly unprovoked attack.
On Tuesday, he was found dead at his property in Chiswick in west London.
The Metropolitan Police said the death of a 44-year-old man was being treated as “unexpected”, and was not believed to be suspicious.
Who was the ‘Putney pusher’ suspect?
Mr Brandram was a decorated former British Army captain who served in Iraq, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.
He previously worked as a manager at leading stockbrokers firm Killik & Co, according to reports.
More recently, he worked as a high-flying banker who advised ultra-high-net-worth clients in his role as a relationship manager at HSBC Private Bank.
In an interview in Citywealth in March this year, he said he was a co-parenting single father with a three-year-old son.
He revealed he enjoyed gardening, opera and Frederick Forsyth novels and paid tribute to his mother’s resilience for raising him and his two sisters as a single parent, adding: “She’d outmarch the SAS and do it in high heels.”
In 2013, he admitted to driving without due care and attention and of failing to stop after a road accident in which he hit a cyclist while riding his Harley Davidson motorbike.
He told the court he did not realise he had struck a cyclist, damaging their back wheel, at London’s Hyde Park Corner so drove away from the scene without exchanging details.
Brandram received five penalty points on his licence, a £200 fine, and compensation costs of £105.
He is understood to have been arrested in connection with the ‘Putney pusher’ case on 15 June this year on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm. While in police custody he was further arrested on suspicion of drug possession.
Last week, the Metropolitan Police confirmed they had released the suspect under investigation.
CCTV of the incident on Putney Bridge on 5 May 2017 showed a jogger forcefully shoving the woman with both of his hands into the path of a double-decker bus. Around 15 minutes later, he passed her as she was receiving help on the bridge and ignored her calls for him to stop.
The woman, who was 33 at the time, sustained a few minor injuries.
At the time, police interviewed more than 50 men and arrested three suspects, but the case was closed in 2018, and no one was ever charged.
Police were called to an address in Chiswick, west London, at 7.12pm on Tuesday, where a man was found unresponsive.
“Sadly, a 44-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next-of-kin have been informed,” the force said, adding that they will prepare a file for the coroner in due course.
