This cold case baffled the UK for nine years. The main suspect has just been found dead

A millionaire banker related to royalty who was under investigation for allegedly pushing a woman in front of a London bus has been found dead.

Nicholas Brandram, 44, the alleged “Putney Pusher”, was found dead at his home in Chiswick, west London, on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST). Police said his death was being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.

Brandram, a direct descendant of Queen Victoria, was arrested in June following a tip-off in the notorious 2017 case in which a jogger pushed a 33-year-old woman in front of an oncoming bus on Putney Bridge in south-west London.

CCTV footage of the incident captured the moment bus driver Oliver Salbris managed to swerve slightly at the last minute, narrowly missing the woman’s head, while the jogger ran on.

The woman sustained minor injuries.

“It was only due to the superb quick reactions of the bus driver that she was not hit by the vehicle,” investigating officer Sergeant Matthew Knowles said shortly after the incident.

Salbris told The Sunday Times following the incident: “If I hadn’t swerved, I would have smashed her head.

“It was reflex. The consequences would have been terrible for her – and for me.”

Police interviewed 50 men and made three arrests at the time, but despite CCTV footage and a witness reportedly confronting the suspect when he jogged back across the bridge 15 minutes later, no one was ever charged. The investigation was closed in 2018.

But in June, after new information came to light, Brandram was detained and questioned by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm and possessing class A and class B drugs.

He was released under investigation last week, police confirmed.

Brandram was a decorated army captain who later worked at HSBC Private Bank, where he was most recently a director.

His father was Paul Brandram, the only son of Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark and godson of the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. King Constantine I of Greece was Brandram’s great-grandfather.

In 2004, two years before Brandram’s distant cousin Prince William attended the academy, Brandram enrolled in the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He then served seven years with the Scots Guards, deploying to Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

In 2011, he married Katrina Davis. The following year, he was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his military service.

The following year, he collided with a female cyclist on Hyde Park Corner.

According to The Telegraph UK, the City of London magistrates’ court heard that Brandram crashed his 1948 Harley-Davidson into the woman, and then drove off without checking if she was hurt or leaving his details.

“I ride a bicycle myself and realise the risks. I’m an upstanding member of society and have recently resigned as a member of the British Army, and have served in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Brandram, representing himself, told the court.

“I have a very loud bike, so it’s not impossible I collided with her without me realising it. At the same time, with such a big bike I don’t know how I didn’t feel the collision.”

In 2014, Brandram and Davis divorced.

In an interview with Citywealth in March, Brandram said he was a “co-parenting single father with a three year old.” It’s understood he shares his son with Sophie Brandram, whom he married in 2021.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.