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Four men have admitted a burglary during which a university lecturer was savagely beaten at his home.
Paul Kohler, 55, needed facial reconstruction surgery for a fractured eye socket after he was attacked by a gang of balaclava-clad men.
Kohler’s wife, Samantha MacArthur, was also threatened by two of the intruders who tried to tie her to a chair with duct tape.
Pawel Honc, 23, of no fixed abode, and Mariusz Tomaszewski, 32, of Mitcham, south London, admitted grievous bodily harm with intent and aggravated burglary at Kingston crown court.
Two other men, Oskar Pawlowicz, 29, from Mitcham, and Dawid Tychon, 29, of no fixed abode, both admitted aggravated burglary but denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Honc and Tomaszewski were both arrested at the scene while Tychon and Pawlowicz were tracked down later.
Barristers for the four defendants told Judge Susan Tapping that each wanted to express his “sincere regret and apologies” for the incident.
Kohler, who is head of law at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London, said he was “ecstatic and very pleased” at the men’s admissions during the court hearing, during which they were hidden from his view by the dock’s frosted glass.
He said: “I would like to meet them face to face, I would like to know why they did it, it is still a big mystery as to why they did it.”
Kohler said he still does not know why he and his family were targeted, and that he cannot believe that it was linked to a bar he owns in London’s Covent Garden.
He said: “I was saying: ‘There is no money, I am an academic, for God’s sake.’ That [why they targeted him] is what I want to find out.”
The four defendants were remanded in custody until they are sentenced on 29 January.
Tapping told them that “only very substantial custodial sentences will be appropriate”.
TheguardianUK
