The sisters of the man suspected of being the so-called “Putney pusher” have told the BBC their brother was innocent, and accused the Metropolitan Police of being “negligent and reckless”.
Nicholas Brandram’s sisters gave BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a list of reasons they believe their brother could not have been the jogger who pushed a woman into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge, west London, in May 2017.
Brandram was found dead on Tuesday evening and his family said he “took his own life after months of immense pressure” caused by the Met investigation.
The Met said it recognised the “strain that being subject to a police investigation” could cause, and that a mandatory referral had been made to the police watchdog.
Brandram’s sisters Alexia Hicks and Sophie Voelcker told Today presenter Justin Webb their brother’s mental health had been deteriorating in recent months and that “every day was becoming difficult” while he was under police scrutiny.
They said it was “ridiculous” their brother – a banker and former army officer – was the suspect because:
His identity did not match the profile of the pusher, saying their brother had a withered leg from an old army injury and a prominent military tattoo on his forearm
The victim reported the attacker had brown eyes but their brother had blue
Their brother lived in Notting Hill, had no connection with Putney and they had evidence to suggest he was in his Bond Street office at the time of the attack
He willingly provided a DNA sample to the Met to speed up the inquiry but never received results, despite pleading with police to speed them up
Describing Brandram’s “hostile” arrest in June, Hicks said: “My brother woke up to a large handful of police officers wearing armed vests and with a film crew on the doorstep from the media.
“So, this came completely out of the blue, off effectively an allegation which must have been either malicious or mistaken.”