Chef armed with fish knife attacked Benedict Cumberbatch's £3.5m family home

Benedict Cumberbatch's £3.5 million home was attacked by a chef wielding a fish knife while the actor and his family were inside, a court has heard.

Jack Bissell, 35, kicked his way into the front garden of the property in North London, shouting threats at the Sherlock star before ripping an intercom off a wall.

Wood Green Crown Court heard that Bissell, a former chef de partie at Mayfair’s five-star Beaumont Hotel, shouted: “I know you’ve moved here, I hope it burns down.”

Cumberbatch, 46, his wife Sophie Hunter, 45, and their three young children could hear the abuse being hurled from inside the house.

The former chef then pulled out one of the family’s plants and threw it at the garden wall, spat at the intercom and prised it loose using a fish knife.

According to the Daily Mail, he subsequently fled the scene but was arrested after police found his DNA on the intercom.

A source told the newspaper: “Naturally, all of the family were absolutely terrified and thought this guy was going to get in and hurt them.

“Luckily it never went that far. Benedict and Sophie have had many sleepless nights since worrying that they may be targeted again.”

Three-year restraining order

After admitting criminal damage in court this month, Bissell was fined £250 and handed a three-year restraining order, which banned him from approaching the Cumberbatch family or the area where they live.

Prosecutors said that before targeting their home, Bissell bought two packets of pitta bread from a nearby shop and told the shopkeeper that he was going to break into Cumberbatch’s house and burn it down.

Bissell offered no defence for his actions, and it is not clear why he decided to target the actor.

He was arrested in 2015 while protesting against military intervention in Syria, and had two stints at the Beaumont from 2017 to 2018 and then from 2019 to 2020.

The chef, from Kentish Town, North London, claimed on his LinkedIn page he had created a dish that remains on the restaurant’s menu. He does not record any employment in the last three years.

He has a previous conviction for theft, three warnings for offences against property, a public order offence and a drug offence.

The Beaumont Hotel was contacted for comment.

Cumberbatch, who came to national attention in 2010 as the eponymous detective in the BBC drama Sherlock, has twice been nominated for an Oscar.

His first nomination was in 2015 for The Imitation Game for his role as the computer scientist Alan Turing.

This was followed in 2022 by a nomination for The Power of the Dog, a Western in which he played the rancher Phil Burbank.

Cumberbatch under attack before

It is not the first time Cumberbatch has come under attack. While filming in South Africa in 2004, he was kidnapped by a gang of six men, and convinced them not to lock him in the boot of a car.

He said at the time: “It taught me that you come into this world as you leave it, on your own. It's made me want to live a life slightly less ordinary.”

Cumberbatch married his wife, theatre director Sophie Hunter, in 2015. They have three sons together, the youngest of whom was born in 2019.

He bought his five-bedroom house in 2015, the same year in which he received a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the performing arts and charity.

That same year Cumberbatch contacted police after a stalker left red ribbons attached to his house and car.

The woman, believed to be an obsessive fan referencing a Sherlock Holmes novel, visited his home at least twice before police intervened and she was forbidden from contacting the actor.

Her approaches led Cumberbatch to increase his security at the Barbican, where he was performing as Hamlet.