Four men have admitted a burglary
during which a university lecturer was savagely beaten at his London home.
At Kingston Crown Court Pawel Honc, 23, and Mariusz Tomaszewski, 32, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and aggravated burglary.
Oskar Pawlowicz and Dawid Tychon, both 29, admitted aggravated burglary but denied causing GBH with intent.
Duct tape
The four men, who are all Polish nationals. will be sentenced in January.
Bruised and battered but still smiling: Paul with his daughters Tamara and Saskia after the attack
Following the attack, police released an image of the victim's injuries
Mr Kohler opened the door to the home he shares with his wife and four daughters at about 22:00 BST to someone he believed was one of his daughter's friends.
The four men then burst in shouting "Where's the money?"
The lecturer's wife Samantha MacArthur was threatened by two of the intruders who tried to tie her to a chair with duct tape.
Mr Kohler was knocked to the floor and one of the gang knelt above him holding a heavy wooden cabinet door, demanding to know where his money was.
He was only saved when police intervened after his daughter, Eloise, who had locked herself in an upstairs bedroom with her boyfriend, called 999.
Mr Kohler said he was "ecstatic and very pleased" at the men's admissions during the court hearing, during which they were hidden from his view by the dock's frosted glass.
"I would like to meet them face to face, I would like to know why they did it, it is still a big mystery as to why they did it," he said.
Mr Kohler said he had been "great, fine and wonderful" since the attack but was still suffering physically.
Ordinary family: The couple, who have four bright daughters, have no idea why they were targetted
"I have continuing trouble with my vision on the left and my wife and children are still quite traumatised by this," he said.
Judge Tapping told the four defendants that "only very substantial custodial sentences will be appropriate".
Honc, of no fixed abode, Tomaszewski, of Crusoe Road, Mitcham, Pawlowicz, of Pitcairn Road, also in Mitcham, and Tychon, of no fixed abode, were remanded in custody until sentencing on 29 January.
Mr Kohler, who is head of law at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London, said he was "ecstatic and very pleased" at the men's admissions during the court hearing, during which they were hidden from his view by the dock's frosted glass.
Mr Kohler received what were described as "life-changing injuries", including multiple facial injuries and bruising to his body and limbs.
Speaking after today's hearing, he praised the police response as "brilliant".
He said: "They got there in a few minutes and I am sure they saved me from something a lot worse. They couldn't have done more than they have done."
Describing the moment officers saved him from further injury, he added: "They (the gang) were threatening to bring down the door of the wooden cabinet on my head and they were going through miming that process when police arrived."
Mr Kohler said he still does not know why he and his family were targeted, and that he cannot believe that it was linked to the "hobby" bar that he owns in London's Covent Garden.
He said: "I was saying 'There is no money, I am an academic, for God's sake'. That (why they targeted him) is what I want to find out."
He added: "It is very strange. You sit outside and it is as if it happened to someone else - something you never thought you would be part of. Even during it, it felt like that."
It has emerged that all four were career criminals, with a string of convictions in their homeland including for violent robberies — which has led some to question why they were in the UK in the first place
Given these facts, you would expect Paul and Samantha to feel nothing but contempt for the men.
Instead, this extraordinary family refuse to go down the path of anger and recrimination and are determined, in time, to forgive — a fitting message for this season of goodwill.
The four defendants were remanded in custody until they are sentenced on January 29.
Judge Tapping told them that "only very substantial custodial sentences will be appropriate".
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-30213462
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