The Times - UK (2020-10-20)

the times | Tuesday October 20 2020 2GM 5

News

DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES FOR AQUA SHARD

Dyson sells Singapore

penthouse for £7m loss

H

e is Britain’s

richest man

with a fortune

of £16.2 billion,

a global business empire

and a pop art collection

that is the envy of

galleries around the

world (Sean O’Neill

writes). Yet there are

signs that the designer

and entrepreneur Sir

James Dyson may be

losing his Midas touch.

The tycoon is selling

his triplex penthouse in

Singapore at a loss of

£7 million. He bought the

“super penthouse” on the

top three floors of the

Tanjong Pagar Centre in

July last year for about

£43 million.

It is the second setback

in the city-state for Sir

James, a prominent

Brexit supporter, since he

announced last year that

he was moving his

headquarters to

Singapore from

Wiltshire. Shortly

afterwards Sir James

confirmed that he was

shelving plans to build an

electric car plant in

Singapore because the

project was not

commercially viable.

Dyson company

sources insisted that the

sale of the property would

have no impact on its

business plans.

The family owns

another property in

Singapore, a

£26 million bungalow

overlooking the city’s

botanic gardens.

Sir James, 73, who

topped this year’s

Sunday Times

Rich List, bought

the penthouse on a

99-year lease. The

property has a pool,

jacuzzi and a

600-bottle wine cellar.

He is selling to the

businessman Leo

Koguan, chairman of the

IT provider SHI

International, whose

clients include Boeing

and AT&T.

Sir James’s

move to

Singapore

drew criticism

amid claims

that it would

cost Britain up to

£60 million a year in lost

corporation tax revenues.

The Dyson business

retains a research and

development base at

Hullavington, Wiltshire,

where engineers

developed a ventilator

during the first

coronavirus wave.

The Dyson family’s

British home is the

Dodington Park estate in

the Cotswolds. Sir

James recently

upset some

local

residents with

plans to build

a gallery to

display his

art

collection,

including

pieces by

David

Hockney

and Sir Peter

Blake, to the

public.

A Dyson

spokesman

declined to

comment on the

sale of the penthouse.

Sir James Dyson, below

with his wife, paid

£43 million for the

penthouse, which

spans three floors

Leslie weeps as

jury clears him

of sex attack at

Christmas party

attacked or assaulted anyone, you

know, ever.” In court he said such be-

haviour was “not in my nature” and that

he had wrongly been portrayed as an

“aggressive sexual monster” in the me-

dia. The court was told he had no mem-

ory of meeting the woman and “denied

that he did any such thing and if there

was any unwanted contact between

them it must have been accidental”.

Gudrun Young, for the defence, said

the woman’s memory may have “be-

come embellished and exaggerated in

her mind” over the years, and asked the

jury: “Did she invent it because she

wanted her own MeToo story to tell?”

Ms Young told the court that, by

2008, Mr Leslie had a public reputation

as a “sex pest” because of “completely

false” sexual allegations. She said that

he was a “broken man” who was “ultra-

cautious” in his behaviour and still hop-

ing to resurrect his career, adding: “He

is the last man on Earth who would

think he could do something like that

and think... he could get away with it.”

The court was told that Ulrika Jons-

son, the TV personality, had written in

a 2002 autobiography that an unnamed

man had raped her in 1988. Matthew

Wright, a presenter, claimed on air in

2002 that the allegation referred to Mr

Leslie. Mr Leslie denied this and Ms

Jonsson never commented. The jury

was told that Mr Wright had apologised

for giving Mr Leslie’s name “in error”.

The jury was told that other allega-

tions were then reported. Police

charged him in 2003 with two indecent

assaults from 1997, leading to the abort-

ed trial. In 2008 he was arrested for an

alleged rape and indecent assault in

1995. It was deemed there was insuffi-
      cient evidence to charge him. Mr Leslie
      was later accused of sexually assaulting
      a woman in an Edinburgh nightclub in


1996. Edinburgh sheriff court found the
      charge not proven in 2018.
      Several former colleagues appeared
      during his latest trial. Anthea Turner
      said: “He was always respectful, incred-
      ibly respectful, with me and the team at
      Blue Peter, a largely female team.” He
      declined to comment as he left court.

Kaya Burgess

A widow has claimed that the wrong

person is being blamed for her hus-

band’s death on a “smart motorway”

after the lorry driver who crashed into

him was jailed yesterday.

Claire Mercer said she believed that

her husband, Jason, 44, would be alive if

there had been a hard shoulder on the

stretch of the M1 in Sheffield where he

and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, were

killed last year when they were hit by an

18-tonne HGV driven by Prezemyslaw

Szuba, 40.

Sheffield crown court heard yester-

day that the victims had pulled into the

slow lane and got out of their vehicles to

swap details after a “minor collision”.

They were standing between the cars

when the lorry crashed into them.

Szuba was jailed for ten months yes-

Dublin, said: “The last thing we want is

to unduly alarm parents, particularly

when we don’t have sufficient informa-

tion on the potential consequences of

microplastics on infant health. We are

calling on policy-makers to reassess the

guidelines for formula preparation...

we have found that it is possible to miti-

gate the risk of ingesting microplastics

by changing practices around sterilisa-

tion and formula preparation.”

Fay Couceiro, a biogeochemistry fel-

low at Portsmouth University, who was

not involved in the research, said the re-

sults were worrying but that formula

feeding was a must for parents who

could not breastfeed, adding that the

known risks from not sterilising bottles

outweighed those of microplastics.

Babies could swallow mass

of microplastics in bottles

Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent

Smart motorway ‘killed my husband’

terday after admitting two counts of

causing death by driving without due

care and attention.

Speaking outside court Mrs Mercer,

who has set up a campaign group called

Smart Motorways Kill, said: “We don’t

believe the correct person is taking

responsibility for this massive detri-

mental effect on ours and so many

other people’s lives.

“The events of June 7 would not have

taken place if there had been a hard

shoulder and Highways England was

run with the correct priorities in mind,

not concentrating on who wins the next

big contract. My hope in this devasta-

tion is that no more lives are ruined

needlessly.”

Jeremy Evans, for the prosecution,

told the court that according to a crash

investigator Szuba would have had up

to five seconds to take evasive action.

In CCTV footage other traffic can be

seen slowing down and pulling into the

right-hand lane to pass the vehicles. Mr

Mercer and Mr Murgeanu had been

standing on the carriageway for more

than five minutes, Mr Evans said.

Andrew Smith, defending, said his

client’s “negligence” and “lack of con-

centration” was “not the only cause”.

He described smart motorways as

unsafe and a “wholly inadequate road

system”.

Judge Jeremy Richardson, QC, told

Szuba: “It was careless driving on your

part. I have no doubt whatever that you

are the main component cause of the

catastrophic crash.” On smart motor-

ways, he said: “I am not conducting a

public inquiry into the advantages or

disadvantages... It appears this form of

highway is controversial and has been

the subject of criticism.”

Charlotte Wace, Graeme Paton

A baby could ingest 2.6 million micro-

particles of plastic a day when fed for-

mula from bottles made of the most

common material, a study suggests.

Researchers found that bottles made

from polypropylene shed particles

when formula was prepared in them. A

baby could ingest as many as 2.6 million

a day, they calculated, but it was not

known if they were harmful.

The scientists, whose research is pub-

lished in Nature Food, said that parents

could reduce infants’ exposure by not

reheating prepared formula in plastic

containers, avoiding microwaves and

not vigorously shaking the bottle.

John Boland, of Trinity College

The former TV presenter John Leslie

wept after he was acquitted of sexual

assault yesterday, as a judge said he

could leave “without a stain” on his

character.

Mr Leslie, 55, wiped away tears and

put his head in his hands after the jury

returned from 23 minutes of delibera-

tions to find him not guilty of grabbing

a woman’s breasts at a Christmas party

12 years ago. His father, Les Stott,

punched the air and Mr Leslie left the

dock and wept as he embraced him.

Mr Leslie, whose real name is John

Stott, hosted Blue Peter, Wheel of For-

tune and This Morning in the 1990s. He

has been the subject of allegations of

sexual assault and rape over the past 18

years but has always denied them and

has never been convicted or cautioned.

His barrister had urged the jury not to

believe in “no smoke without fire”.

In 2003, after charges of indecent

assault against Mr Leslie were dropped

at Southwark crown court before a trial,

he was told he could leave “without a

stain” on his character. After the verdict

was read out there yesterday Judge

Deborah Taylor said: “This is the second

time you leave this court without a stain

on your character. I hope that it will be

the last time you have to attend.”

The complainant, who said that she

had gone to a Christmas party in the

West End in 2008 with her boyfriend

and friends, claimed to have introduced

herself to Mr Leslie and shaken his

hand. She alleged that he then groped

her breasts before laughing and walk-

ing off. There were no witnesses.She

went to the police in 2017 after being

inspired by the #MeToo movement.

Mr Leslie told officers: “I have never

John Leslie was

a broken man,

his barrister said