Jail looms for Patten son-in-law after shooting-case conviction

The son-in-law of Hong Kong's last colonial governor has been convicted for acting as a getaway driver in a shooting attack to terrorize the bosses of an Indian restaurant in west London last year.

Elton Charles, 51, who has been married to Chris Patten's daughter Laura for 21 years, faces years behind bars for his part in the early evening shooting in PBK Indian restaurant in Greenford last September.

It was only by sheer good fortune, British media reports said, that none of the families with children dining were hurt.

Laura Patten, 48, held her head in her hands and wept as a jury found Charles guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. The trial lasted six weeks.

She has three children, ages 12 to 17, with Charles, who runs a property maintenance company and whom she married in 2002.

The court heard that the attack was hatched by Charles' half-brother Nathaniel St Aimie, 48, who blasted the restaurant's windows with a shotgun.

The shooting sent glass spraying into the dining area, where horrified families were eating, reports said. St Aimie had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Security videos show a hooded man wielding a sawed-off shotgun getting out of a van and firing a single cartridge into the window on September 6 last year.

"I was moved to see from the videos one of the adult customers moved to protect their child. That was good to see, that his first thought was to protect the child who on the face of it came to no harm," judge Jonathan Davies said, according to The Sun.

Charles, St Aimie and two codefendants - Nicholas Grant, 46, and Lee Morgan, 42 - will be sentenced on September 15.

Charles admitted driving in convoy with St Aimie toward the restaurant. But he said he joined the convoy to buy some cannabis from his half-brother and was sitting in his vehicle unaware of the plot.

According to The Sun, he admitted he was a cannabis user and told the court: "Occasionally I would like to smoke, you know, after work I would like to settle, chill, so I would smoke some cannabis.

"My brother would get some for me if he could. I wouldn't go out and buy because it wasn't a habit. My wife doesn't like me smoking. I don't smoke in the house and the kids don't know I smoke. I'm not a smoker everyday, I can go without smoking for two months. It was once in a while.

"It's not a habit, it's more for pleasure. I wasn't addicted to the stuff."

The court heard that St Aimie, after they reached the scene, told Charles to "give me a minute" before pulling on a balaclava and blasting the restaurant windows with a shotgun.

Jurors have been shown security footage of a hooded gunman getting out of the white Volkswagen van before walking 50 toward the restaurant and firing.

Laura Patten, the middle of Patten's three daughters with former barrister wife Lavender, shot to fame in 1992 when she arrived in Hong Kong in a miniskirt and bustier top. With her younger sister Alice, now 43 and an actress, and Kate, now 50 and a documentary maker, they were tagged "The Three Graces" by Hong Kong media.

According to the Daily Mail she was determined to maintain a low profile then, but when 10 years later she and Charles announced their wedding it was "amid a flurry of newspaper headlines dwelling on the apparent incongruity of the match." They met in 1992 when she was 17 and Charles was 20.