Seedy truth about latest ‘Russia poison plot victims’
‘Ambassador of perversion’ is pal of notorious conman
THE latest poison plot in Salisbury may not be quite all it seems.
A Russian model and her British husband became violently ill at the weekend after dining in the city’s Prezzo restaurant and claimed they were the victims of a Russian terror attack, just like ex-spy Sergei Skripal.
However, the couple — Anna Shapiro and Alex King — have a very colourful background. For I can reveal King, 42, is an old business partner of notorious fraudster Eddie Davenport, the playboy conman known as ‘Fast Eddie’.
Davenport was given an eight-year jail sentence in 2011 for a £4.5 million fraud. Among his 51 victims was Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer Elizabeth Emanuel.
Davenport, who made his name running the Gatecrasher Balls for public school teens, was released from Wandsworth after three years.
Before Fast Eddie was sent to prison King lived with him at his 24-bedroom, £14 million home in London, 33 Portland Place, used as a location for the film The King’s Speech. It was also the setting for fashion shoots and riotous parties.
King, who ran a modelling agency, was exposed by a newspaper as ‘an ambassador of perversion’ for hosting orgies at the house and hiring out Russian girls for sex at £500 a day.
Shapiro, 30, his business partner who claims to be the daughter of a former Russian general, reportedly moved to London in 2008 and met Alex soon after. They are said to have married only last month.
King apparently won a £100,000 bet for gatecrashing the royal film premiere of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, where he introduced himself to Prince Charles.
Born Alex Ainley, son of Irish businessman Shaun Ainley, he changed his name to King when he found out his biological father was a German baron, Freddie von Nidda.
‘He races around after this Davenport fellow trying to emulate him,’ said von Nidda in 2006. ‘He wants an easy life and easy money.’