Lord Lucan’s living in Oz? I doubt it very much says son
‘People will always go on looking’
LORD Lucan’s son yesterday said he was very sceptical about claims the missing peer had been found alive in Australia.
George Bingham described the report as ‘odd’ and added: ‘My father has been found many times over the years only for it to be wrong.’
Lord Lucan vanished from the scene of nanny Sandra Rivett’s murder in 1974 in a case that has intrigued and baffled British society for decades.
He was formally declared dead in 2016, upon which Mr Bingham inherited his title to become the 8th Earl of Lucan.
But the victim’s son, Neil Berriman, yesterday claimed to have discovered the murder suspect in Australia.
Mr Berriman said he had found the peer living with two young Englishmen and an
Australian. He said Lucan was now a Buddhist, and took part in daily meditation sessions with his three friends.
Adamant he had finally unravelled the mystery, Mr Berriman told The Daily Mirror yesterday: ‘I know he is still alive.’
But speaking from his home in London, Lucan’s son – Mr Bingham – said: ‘Quite frankly I am very sceptical about this. I had seen the story and it does seem odd.’
The 52-year-old, who was seven when his father disappeared, added: ‘It would not be the first time someone has made a mistake. To be honest, this is all ancient history. I guess people will always go on looking and they are welcome to do so.’
Mr Bingham also revealed he and his Danish heiress wife Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard, had a baby boy, Charles, on December 30 – and said he was ‘more worried’ about the newborn’s poor sleeping than reports his father was alive.
The man accused in Australia was said to be virtually housetody bound and needing a part-time carer as he awaits major surgery. If Lucan is still alive he would have had his 85th birthday last month.
Mr Berriman said that friends of the man had confirmed that an elderly Englishman who looked like Lucan did live at the house.
There was no photograph of him accompanying the newspaper’s report, however.
Mr Berriman has apparently been to Scotland Yard’s cold case unit with his findings, but Mr Bingham said detectives had not contacted him, and he did not expect them to do so.
Lucan, a casino gambler, was battling his wife Veronica for cusof their three children when Miss Rivett, 29, was beaten to death in the basement of the family home in Belgravia, London.
Soon after, Lucan made an incoherent phone call to his mother about a ‘terrible catastrophe’ with ‘blood and mess everywhere’.
His car was found on the south coast a day later, with a piece of lead pipe – believed to be the murder weapon – in its boot. An inquest found that Lucan was the killer. It is generally believed he mistook Miss Rivett for his wife.
In the absence of the peer’s body, rumours have long circulated that he fled to southern Africa or elsewhere with the help of wealthy friends. In 2015, when Mr Bingham launched a legal attempt to ‘bring closure’, Mr Berriman lodged a formal objection to Lucan being declared dead.
By then Lucan had already been declared dead for probate purposes in 1999, but no death certificate was issued, and his son was not allowed to inherit his title.
That changed after the second judgment in 2016 when the High Court issued a ‘presumption of death’ certificate.
After that ruling, Mr Bingham said he suspected his father had taken his own life. Widow Veronica, who died in 2017, also believed he killed himself. Mr Berriman, a builder who lives with his partner Kim in Milland, West Sussex, was adopted as a baby and only discovered the identity of his mother in 2004.
He said his search for Lucan had taken over his life and that he had ‘spent around £30,000 of my own money in this search for the truth’. The father-of-two added that his research costs had, as well as travel all over Australia, included ‘expert facial recognition technology for analysis’.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘The inquiry into the death of Sandra Rivett remains open... any significant new information will be considered.’