Nigella Lawson neck grab: Police caution Charles Saatchi on ‘assault’

Food Network star Nigella Lawson and husband Charles Saatchi are at the center of a domestic violence incident that has some scratching their heads.

Saatchi, photographed with his hands around the neck of Lawson -- a TV chef and cookbook author -- admitted guilt by accepting a police “caution for assault” but hasn’t admitted to assault publicly.

According to a British government website, a person must admit to an offense and agree to be cautioned. Saatchi had to have agreed to the offense or he would have been arrested and charged.

The website also stated that cautions are given for minor offenses and that they are not criminal convictions.

The art dealer told London’s Evening Standard on Tuesday that he had voluntarily gone to police to “take” a caution after discussing the matter with his lawyer. He said he didn’t want the incident “hanging over all of us for months.” He stressed that Lawson had made no police complaint.

The London Metropolitan Police didn’t identify the man they warned, saying only that he was a 70-year-old man and had accepted caution for an assault.

The photos capturing the incident were taken by paparazzi outside of Scott’s, a London rooftop seafood restaurant, on June 9 and published in Sunday People, a Mirror Group publication. Saatchi was photographed with his hands around the neck of a distressed-looking Lawson.

“Officers from the community safety unit at Westminster were aware of the Sunday People article, which published on Sunday 16th June, and carried out an investigation,” a police spokesman told CNN.

Saatchi responded to the photos Monday in the Independent, calling the incident a “playful tiff” and saying “there was no grip.” He went on to say that “the pictures are horrific” but that the incident wasn’t as drastic as depicted. He said his wife’s tears were due to the argument, not his hold on her neck.

Lawson and her children reportedly have moved out of the home they share with Saatchi.

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