Melissa Rein Lively admitted assaulting a woman at a London Underground station on Tuesday, June 2, and accepted an additional caution after a row outside Bond Street station last year. She did not appear in Westminster Magistrates’ Court for the hearing.
The court was told that Rein Lively, 40, had agreed to pay £910 in compensation over the incident on Saturday, October 12, when two sisters were walking towards Bond Street Underground station with their children and saw the couple kissing on the pavement. Prosecutors said she appeared drunk, and one of the sisters told the court that Rein Lively pulled her hair and tugged it in a forceful manner before the sibling grabbed it back to make her let go.
The admission gives the case a clear outcome for Rein Lively, who is described as an American influencer and prominent Donald Trump supporter. It also leaves the separate case against Philipp Ostermann moving on its own track. He pleaded not guilty to three public order offences, two of them racially aggravated, after the prosecutor alleged he shouted, “You bloody Indians, watch where you’re going. You shouldn’t be here”.
The sisters responded that they were “not even Indians” and told him to stop being racist, according to the hearing. Ostermann was granted unconditional bail, and the judge confirmed that his trial will take place at the City of London Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, November 17. What remains unresolved is the detail of the additional caution Rein Lively accepted, which was not set out in court on Tuesday.
