Royals-linked banker Nicholas Brandram, accused of being London’s notorious Putney Pusher, died after police stalled DNA test results, sisters say

A 44-year-old London banker accused of being the notorious jogger who shoved a woman in front of a bus died this week at home, police said.

Nicholas Brandram, 44, was a former British Army captain, a descendant of Queen Victoria and a millionaire banker in London.

In 2017, a jogger shoved a woman into the path of an oncoming double-decker bus on Putney Bridge, according to authorities.

Video footage captured the pedestrian being knocked toward the moving bus before the driver swerved, police said.

Brandram was arrested and charged in June in connection with the attack, according to authorities.

Officers arrested the banker at his West London home using a large handful of police officers wearing armed vests, according to his sisters.

On Tuesday, Brandram was found dead inside his Chiswick residence, police said.

Scotland Yard described the sudden death as unexpected, police said. Officials stated that the fatality is not being treated as suspicious.

The Metropolitan Police subsequently referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog, according to the force.

On Friday, the banker’s sisters blamed police actions for his death, according to their public remarks.

His sister Alexia Hicks told the Guardian through tears that the allegations that he was the notorious cruel 2017 jogger were slowly murdering him.

Brandram had fought vigorously to establish his innocence before his death, Hicks and her sibling, Sophie Voelcker, told the BBC’s “Today” program.

The former army captain offered to pay to have a DNA test done privately to expedite the results, his sisters said.

Brandram had already provided his own DNA sample directly to London’s Metropolitan Police, according to his family.

Officers instructed the suspect not to obtain a private test, assuring him that official police results would arrive within four weeks, according to the sisters.

Police later backtracked on that timeline shortly before the banker was found dead at his residence, his family said.

“The problem is, one of the officers said that DNA test results are ‘any day now’ – and then only a couple of days, I believe, before his death, he said, ‘Actually we can’t even give you a date any more,’” Hicks, 40, said.

Brandram’s family had remained confident that the official police investigation would clear his name without the need for independent testing, according to his sisters.

“We put faith into the system, the justice system,” they said.

The sisters stated that they wanted investigators to finish their work because they knew Brandram was innocent, according to their interview.

The family said Brandram remained certain of his innocence, adding that the police knew he was innocent as well.

“Therefore, we thought, we don’t need to pay for a DNA test – surely the police will just conduct their own test, they’ll release the [no further action] letter, as they kept assuring my brother,” his sisters said.

The sisters questioned why police showed urgency during the armed arrest but moved slowly on the DNA inquiry, according to their BBC interview.

Brandram also offered to participate in a formal identification parade, his family said. The Metropolitan Police never organized the lineup, according to his sisters.

“We provided evidence very quickly to show that this did not look like our brother,” they said.

“Nine and a half years ago when the incident occurred, there’d been absolutely nothing connecting our brother to the attack,” his sisters said.

The family highlighted five separate factors that they said would have conclusively established Brandram’s innocence, according to his sisters.

Brandram sent an email from his Bond Street office roughly four miles from Putney Bridge when the incident occurred, his family said.

That work email proved that the accused could not have been on the bridge, his sisters said.

The sisters emphasized that Brandram had never had any connection to the Putney area, according to the family.

Brandram had blue eyes, his sisters said. The victim had reported to investigators that the jogger who shoved her had brown eyes, according to his family.

Brandram also had a visibly wasted and disfigured calf, his family said. The man captured in the bridge video showed no such physical deformity, his sisters said.

The banker had a prominent forearm tattoo, his family said. That tattoo was entirely absent on the jogger seen in the footage, his sisters said.

“Our thoughts are with Mr Brandram’s family and friends at this deeply distressing time. We recognise the significant impact his death will have on those who knew and loved him,” Chief Superintendent Dan Knowles told London’s Evening Standard.

“We also understand the strain that being subject to a police investigation can place on individuals and their families,” Knowles said.

“The investigation remains ongoing,” he said. “Investigations of this nature, particularly those involving complex evidential and forensic work, can take a number of months to complete as officers gather and assess all available evidence.”