DNA of Lando Norris’s mugger found on F1 driver's wrist after £144,000 Richard Mille watch theft
CCTV alone couldn't identify the suspect
The DNA of a thief who allegedly stole a £144,000 watch from F1 star Lando Norris was found on the wrist of the McLaren Formula One team driver, Harrow crown court has heard.
Norris was involved in a mugging at Wembley when attending the delayed final of the Euro 2020 football tournament.
Liam Williams, 25, of Bootle, Merseyside, is accused of pulling Norris’s arm behind him and taking the RM 67-02 ‘Automatic Extra Flat’ watch, which was designed bespoke for the F1 star. Richard Mille is an exclusive watch maker, building only very high-end models, and is a sponsor of the McLaren team for which Norris races.
The incident took place in July 2021 — a point at which Norris was in his third season of F1 racing with the McLaren team, and was team-mate to Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Norris, born in 1999, has been one of F1’s brightest rising stars in the past few years, in spite of the fluctuating form of the McLaren team. So far this year, the form of the McLaren team has been poor but, while he is unlikely to get his day on track, Norris seems to be getting his day in court.
Tyrone Silcott, for the prosecution, said: “He [Norris] noticed two men walk around his car and one approached, asking: ‘Is this your car?’
“[One of the men] went behind Mr Norris and grabbed him. He put his right arm around his neck and his left arm behind his back and pulled Mr Norris backwards, causing him to look at the sky.
“The one pulling him back called the accomplice to grab the watch and the other man pulled the watch from his wrist and as he did, scratched his left wrist.”
Although Silcott allowed that the quality of the CCTV footage that captured the incident was not of sufficient quality to make a positive identification, DNA evidence from swabs taken from Norris’s wrist were described to the court as “37 million times more likely” to be from the accused than from any other person.
The court also heard that Williams’ phone had been registered by his mobile service provider as travelling from Liverpool to Wembley the day before the incident, returning to Liverpool in the early hours of June 13.
The case has echoes of an incident in 2010 when former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was violently mugged in central London for his expensive Hublot watch. The crime achieved extra notoriety when, at Ecclestone’s suggestion, Hublot used an image of his face, with a black eye, on an advert that said: “See what people will do for a Hublot.”
The Norris case continues.
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