A law lecturer who also owns a bar has been viciously beaten by thugs in his Wimbledon home.
Paul Kohler, who teaches property law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, was playing a board game with his wife when he answered the door to four men who pushed him into the hall so the attack wouldn't be seen from the street and demanded he give them "the money".
Kohler, who says he had no money to give them, was punched and kicked almost 20 feet across the hall. When he called to his wife one of the attackers ran upstairs and trapped her.
Kohler was beaten "remorselessly", but managed to stop the men from gagging him with gaffer tape and restrained himself from also calling to his daughter, who was upstairs with her boyfriend. She quietly turned off her light, crawled under the bed, called 999 and whispered to the operator that her father was being attacked. Kohler said that just as one of the men ripped the door off his cocktail cabinet and threatened to beat him with it unless he revealed the money's whereabouts, "a copper just flew through the door like the cavalry. He grabbed at the guy who was kneeling on my shoulders and pinned him down".
Shocked former students said on the RoF discussion board that Kohler, who was unable to open his eyes for two days and requires surgery to reconstruct a cracked eye socket, was "an absolutely lovely guy". The lecturer also owns a cabaret bar in Covent Garden, the Cellar Door, which is located in a converted underground loo. He says he believes the attackers either got the wrong address or made the "stupid" assumption that he kept the club's takings in his house.
So far police have arrested two men, part of a Polish gang, while a photo has been released of a third suspect.
Tip Off ROF
Paul Kohler, who teaches property law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, was playing a board game with his wife when he answered the door to four men who pushed him into the hall so the attack wouldn't be seen from the street and demanded he give them "the money".
Kohler, who says he had no money to give them, was punched and kicked almost 20 feet across the hall. When he called to his wife one of the attackers ran upstairs and trapped her.
 |
Kohler, bruised but unbowed |
Kohler was beaten "remorselessly", but managed to stop the men from gagging him with gaffer tape and restrained himself from also calling to his daughter, who was upstairs with her boyfriend. She quietly turned off her light, crawled under the bed, called 999 and whispered to the operator that her father was being attacked. Kohler said that just as one of the men ripped the door off his cocktail cabinet and threatened to beat him with it unless he revealed the money's whereabouts, "a copper just flew through the door like the cavalry. He grabbed at the guy who was kneeling on my shoulders and pinned him down".
Shocked former students said on the RoF discussion board that Kohler, who was unable to open his eyes for two days and requires surgery to reconstruct a cracked eye socket, was "an absolutely lovely guy". The lecturer also owns a cabaret bar in Covent Garden, the Cellar Door, which is located in a converted underground loo. He says he believes the attackers either got the wrong address or made the "stupid" assumption that he kept the club's takings in his house.
So far police have arrested two men, part of a Polish gang, while a photo has been released of a third suspect.
Comments
85
77
83
83