More than nine years after a jogger appeared to shove a woman into the path of a double-decker bus on Putney Bridge, police have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm.
The 44-year-old suspect was detained at his £1.4m home in west London on Monday, the Metropolitan Police said, after new information revived a case that was closed in 2018.
“Met Police arrest 44-year-old over 2017 Putney Bridge jogger attack that closed case in 2018.”
CCTV footage from May 5, 2017, captured the moment a runner – described as a white man in his early to mid-30s with short brown hair, wearing a grey T-shirt and dark blue shorts – pushed a 33-year-old woman off the kerb into the path of a Number 430 bus. The driver, Oliver Salbris, swerved just in time.
“If I hadn’t swerved, I would have smashed her head,” Salbris told the Sunday Times shortly after. “It was reflex. The consequences would have been terrible for her – and for me.”
The woman narrowly escaped serious injury. About 15 minutes later, the jogger returned across the bridge and ignored her when she tried to speak to him.
Detectives initially interviewed 50 men and arrested three suspects, but no charges were brought and the investigation was shelved. The unsolved case became the subject of a play, Once Upon a Bridge, by Sonya Kelly, who urged anyone with information to come forward.
On Monday, the Met confirmed the arrest of a 44-year-old man on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm. A spokesperson said: “He was taken to police custody, where he remains. The arrest relates to an incident on 5 May 2017, where a woman was pushed into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge in Putney. Inquiries continue.”
The Telegraph reported that the suspect is a decorated Army captain who works as a bank director and has familial links to European royal dynasties, including the British monarchy.
Salbris, who still drives over Putney Bridge daily, told the Daily Mail: “I always think about the case … Whenever I’m on the bridge, I look very carefully at the pedestrians on the pavement, I just can’t help it.”
As the suspect remains in police custody, questions linger over what new evidence led detectives back to a case that had long gone cold.