Met chief refuses to apologise over pressure on 'Putney Pusher' suspect

The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has refused to apologise for the pressure placed on the suspect in the “Putney Pusher” case before he died last month.

Sir Mark Rowley told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on Thursday that Nicholas Brandram, 44, an army veteran, was still being investigated over the 2017 incident, in which a jogger shoved a woman into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge, west London.

Brandram, a private banker, was arrested at his home in Chiswick, west London, on 15 June 2026 on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm. The investigation had been wound down in 2018 without anyone being charged.

His sisters, Alexia Hicks, 40, and Sophie Voelcker, 45, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was innocent, said a DNA test would clear his name, and accused detectives of putting him under “immense pressure”.

Rowley said the case “has been live all that time” and that new information led to Brandram being treated as a suspect. “Every criminal suspect, of course they’re under pressure. That is obvious. I’m not going to apologise for that,” he said. He added the DNA was “not as significant as has been pretended in the media”, and the force must review the family’s complaints alongside continuing the investigation.

The family said Brandram took his own life after months of immense pressure. The Independent Office for Police Conduct has told the Met’s professional standards unit to investigate the handling of the case.

Sources

• The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/apology-pressure-putney-pusher-mark-rowley-nicholas-brandram-38v0fvpnt
• Putney.news (reporting on BBC Radio 4 Today interview and inquest opening): https://putney.news/2026/09/25/police-contact-with-man-arrested-over-putney-bridge-push-to-be-investigated/
• Europesays/BBC (sisters’ interview republished): https://www.europesays.com/uk/1210412/