Millionaire couple avoid prison after samurai sword attack on neighbours

Property magnate Simon Carson, 58, flew into a rage after weeks of rows about building noise from the flat above his at a Marylebone mansion block.

He went to confront neighbours Simon and Madeleine Korn armed with a £20,000 Japanese antique sword.

Mr Korn, a wealthy Mayfair estate agent, had his hand badly sliced by the blade while defending himself.

Mrs Korn, an art historian, was slapped about the body by Carson's American-born wife, award-winning art curator Freddie Booker-Carson, 57, during the scuffle at Mansfield Court.

A porter found the four neighbours grappling on the floor at 1.30am on 26October last year.

Both attackers were spared jail in what the victims condemned as "one law for the rich and one for the poor".

Mrs Korn, 53, told the Standard: "We feel justice has not been done. They have shown absolutely no remorse for what they have put us through.

"Everyone is fearful of knife crime these days and we are angry and bewildered that these two have gone free.

"Had Mr Carson and his wife lived on a council estate instead of this fine building, had they not been able to afford eminent QCs to represent them, they would be in prison now."

Mr Korn ,who suffered serious injuries and will have scars and pains in his hand and wrist for life, said: "I feel disgusted.

"What happened to me was surreal and disturbing. A sword attack was my worst nightmare coming to life."

The attack was the culmination of weeks of simmering resentment after the Korns, who lived above the Carsons, began renovating their listed apartment last year, which included the laying of expensive French oak floorboards.

Mrs Korn said the Carsons had subjected her and her husband to "continual harassment" from soon after they moved in, bombarding them with legal threats and playing loud rock music on large speakers directed at the ceiling.

She said: "We restored everything to its original grandeur but he didn't like the fact we were putting down a wooden floor which he himself had in his flat.

"We had permission from the managing agents and the residents' association and listed buildings consent from Westminster council.

"But whatever we did, Mr Carson wouldn't go away. He claimed we caused £35,000 damage to his flat and said he would get an injunction to stop the work.

"It cost us £10,000 in legal bills just answering all his letters."

Carson, the director of the property group London and Argyll and an ambassador for a number of charities, received a one-year jail term suspended for two years after he pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm at Southwark crown court.

Booker-Carson, an expert in African art who curated a well-received exhibition at Tate Britain in 2006, got an absolute discharge after admitting common assault.

Judge Gregory Stone said he had taken account of the defendants' "impeccable character" and their dedication to charity work.

The couple moved to the Sanderson hotel after the incident and now live in Mayfair.