Tycoon Charles Saatchi is 'cautioned' by London police after pictures surface showing his hands on her neck.


British advertising tycoon-turned-art collector Charles Saatchi has admitted assault and accepted a 'police caution' after published photos showed him grabbing the throat of his wife, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson.

Tabloid newspapers this week published photos of the incident, which happened June 9 at a table outside a posh London restaurant.

Saatchi, 70, whose ad agency helped Margaret Thatcher become prime minister in 1979, had characterized the incident as a 'playful tiff' during an intense debate about the couple's children.

Lawson, 53, a daughter of a former British finance minister, is a famously sultry TV chef whose cookbooks and cooking shows are widely popular in Britain and the USA.

They have long been a celebrity couple in London's media, art and intellectual circles, intensely admired, envied or loathed, and regularly gossiped about. This episode has helped ignite a discussion about domestic violence in Britain.
Under British law, a caution is a formal warning given to someone who admits the offense. It carries no penalty, but it can be used as evidence of bad character if a person is later prosecuted for a different crime.

The Daily Mirror said late Monday that Saatchi had accepted the official warning after a fiv.