Opera fan cleared of ramming disabled woman with her own wheelchair during row over seat

 
German tenor: The alleged altercation happened during a performance featuring Jonas Kaufmann
Jonas Kaufmann
Robin de Peyer16 July 2015
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

An opera-enthusiast has been cleared of shoving a disabled woman with her own wheelchair at a concert.

Graham Kern was accused of leaving Alison Harvey with an injured shoulder after a confrontation during a January performance featuring German tenor Jonas Kaufmann at Wigmore Hall in central London.

But Kern, 57, from Barbican, central London, disputed Miss Harvey's account and denied the charge against him.

A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for just two hours and 20 minutes to clear Kern of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The two-day trial had heard that before taking her allocated space as a wheelchair user, Kern had seen Miss Harvey standing up in the foyer of the high-brow musical venue to buy a programme.

So when she found him standing in her reserved place, he initially refused to move and she stood up to reason with him, jurors were told.

The incident happened during a performance at Wigmore Hall (Picture: Graham Hussey)
Graham Hussey

The woman, who is registered disabled, said she was "shocked" when Kern told her to fold up the chair and stand next to him.

Miss Harvey, who can only stand for short periods after losing part of her foot in an accident, told jurors: "He got hold of the wheelchair and he rammed it at me. I went completely flying."

Kern later moved to a designated standing area to watch the performance featuring a Wagner piece which included a poem aptly entitled "Stand Still!".

Prosecutor Paul Simon told the jury that the case essentially boiled down to her word against his.

After being found not guilty, Kern smiled and shook hands with his legal team before leaving court.

The concert by Kaufmann and pianist Helmut Deutsch featured works by Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in