Headteacher of £20,000-a-year Wimbledon prep school pleads guilty to driving that broke a cyclist's wrists

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.

Catherine Hitchcock, 49, was fined £911 and handed five penalty points after admitting driving without due care at Lavender Hill Magistrates' Court. She cut across cyclist Robert Atkinson at a mini roundabout on Belvedere Grove in Wimbledon, sending him over his handlebars and fracturing both his wrists. Hitchcock did not attend the Tuesday hearing herself — her lawyer entered the guilty plea and conceded Atkinson had right of way.

Donhead Preparatory School, where Hitchcock has been headteacher since January 2024, charges £20,000 a year and counts Tom Holland and Danny Cipriani among its former pupils.

The incident took place near Hitchcock's £1.8 million home, just yards from the school gates in Wimbledon Village.

Hitchcock also serves as a governor of Putney High School and inspects private schools for the Department for Education — she had a clean licence before the offence.