A seven year old boy on his way to the Natural History Museum was left screaming and covered in blood after being kicked in the head by a total stranger, a court heard.
Oliver Theodore Salvesen Baden-Powell, 42, who claims to be former pupil of Harrow School, left the boy in tears after a running roundhouse kick to the head, it is alleged.
He then racially abused police who arrested him after the attack, which happened weeks after he assaulted seven people at two alcoholics anonymous meetings, Isleworth Crown Court heard.
The boy spent a night in hospital and needed stitches after the kick on May 12, 2018, described as “like the sort of kick a footballer would use to kick a ball.”
Photographs handed to jurors showed the lad, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with a stitched gash on his nose.
A statement from the boy’s dad, read to Isleworth Crown Court, said he was “holding his hand” and “casually talking” when Baden-Powell attacked.
He said: “One approaching person changed tack slightly in our direction and took a few quick running steps towards and delivered what I would probably describe as a running roundhouse kick towards his face.
“He kicked the child in the face with full force.
“This was like the sort of kick a footballer would use to kick a ball at around waist height.
“He fell to the back of his head against the pavement, he did have a bump on the back of his head.
“He was screaming and crying. There was a lot of blood and my first thought was grave, thinking his face had been smashed quite badly.”
Prosecutor Allister Walker said the lad was rushed to hospital after the savage assault and needed stitches and was treated for headaches, vomiting and a “clear fluid” running from his nose.
He said after he was arrested Baden-Powell called a police officer, PC Chatrath, a “p*ki” and another a “n*gger”.
PC Chatrath said in a statement: “Mr Baden-Powell called me a ‘p*ki’, he did this several times and continued to do so.”
The officer added: “I was also shocked in this day and age when Mr Baden-Powell called another officer a n*gger.”
The incident happened after Baden-Powell assaulted seven people at alcoholics anonymous meetings at two churches on April 5, it is alleged.
Mr Walker said the first meeting of about 20 people, at St Edmund, King and Martyr church, in central London, at 7.30am, but quickly became “disruptive”.
He volunteered to be timekeeper but “cut people short” then confronted the organiser and said: “What’s this about you banning me from the meeting?”
Mr Walker said: “Others intervened but he swung his arms and kicked out violently.”
He floored one person with a punch to the nose then attacked a woman who said she was calling the police.
Mr Walker said: “The defendant punched her in the face, her nose taking the full brunt as she staggered back, dizzy and disorientated into a wall.”
Several other people were attacked before Baden-Powell stole a bag and fled, the court heard.
Later that day, he then went to another “recovery meeting” at Hinde Street Methodist Church, also in central London, at 1pm and again asked to be timekeeper.
Mr Walker said: “The defendant changed his shirt at the meeting and was very defensive when reservation was expressed at his once again being timekeeper at the meeting.
“He said, ‘I’m going to get people, I won’t be treated like this’. He threatened to kill a man who was sitting in the corner.
“When clearly alarmed, the man set to leave, the defendant attacked him, throwing punches.”
During the fracas, a PCSO who was in the building, John Von Kreuz-Gannie, was alerted to the commotion and intervened.
Mr Kreuz-Gannie said in a statement read to jurors: “The defendant said to me, ‘what are you f*cking looking at?’
“He then looked at a mixed-race male standing near me and said ‘you f*cking p*ki, you’re dead. He then said, ‘let me go, I have done f*ck all.’”
But he became more aggressive and freed himself from the men holding him when Mr Kreuz-Gannie showed his PCSO identification.
He added: “He managed to get his left arm free and swung at me and the blow caught me on my right cheek.”
Baden-Powell, who also claims to have worked at the historic Oswestry private boarding school, in Shropshire, which costs up to £10,400 per year, has pleaded not guilty to the attacks by reason of insanity.
Judge Robyn Johnson allowed him to leave the court after the jury was sworn and he will not be present through the trial.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity seven counts of assaults by beating and two of affray allegedly committed on April 5, 2018.
He denies one count of theft on the same date of a rucksack, including an iPad, on the same grounds.
He also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to one count of wounding with intent and another of racially aggravated harassment against PC Chatrath on May 12.
Mr Walker added: “These allegations of public order offences, some nasty assaults and ultimately a very violent assault on a seven-year-old boy, reflect an ascending scale of random offending by this defendant against members of the public earlier this year.
“There’s no dispute as you know that this defendant committed the matters alleged in all of the separate incidents.”
The judge added: “There’s also no doubt that he was at the time suffering from very poor mental health.”
By Lewis Pennock
