Overview
- British Transport Police, which announced the case Friday, charged Melissa Rein Lively with assault by beating and Philipp Ostermann with two racially aggravated public order offenses and a further public order offense.
- Police say the confrontation at Bond Street Underground on October 11 began after a stroller bumped a passerby, then escalated to racist abuse, a hair grab, and spraying of what was said to be pepper spray toward a mother, her sister, and two young children.
- The first hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.
- Pepper spray is illegal in the United Kingdom, which adds legal stakes to allegations that a small bottle was sprayed toward the family.
- Rein Lively is a US-based pro-Trump PR executive and Ostermann is a Munich private equity associate director, profiles that have drawn wide UK and US media attention to the case.