VICTIM’S SON: I’VE TRACKED DOWN LORD LUCAN
Murdered nanny’s boy says he has found fugitive living in Australia
THE son of the nanny killed by Lord Lucan claims he has found the peer in Australia.
Neil Berriman says Lucan, who vanished after the murder of Sandra Rivett in 1974, lives as a Buddhist in a shared house.
After telling police of his findings, he said: “I know he’s still alive.”
LORD Lucan has been found living as a Buddhist in Australia, claims the son of the nanny murdered by the peer in one of the country’s most enduring crime mysteries.
Neil Berriman, whose mother Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death in the Lucan family home in 1974, said: “I know he is still alive.”
The man he believes to be Lucan is in his mid-80s and seriously ill, awaiting major surgery and virtually housebound in a large shared detached house in the suburbs.
Mr Berriman, 52, has been to Scotland Yard’s Cold Case Unit with his findings, telling them: “I believe I have tracked down the man, Lord Lucan, who murdered my mother.”
He said the officer he spoke to agreed that police must look into his claims. He added: “They will now have to investigate this properly.”
The building contractor and father-of-two claims Lucan based himself in Perth on arrival in Australia, but moved to another part of the country after a series of disagreements with pals.
He now has a new group of friends. Two are young Englishmen, and another is an Australian he first met on a Buddhist retreat 11 years ago. They all take part in daily meditation sessions.
The mystery man needs a part-time carer, and often sits on the verandah listening to trains in the distance. The friends confirmed to the Daily Mirror that an elderly Englishman who looks like Lucan lives at the house.
Lord “Lucky” Lucan, who would have turned 85 last month, disappeared after the murder of Miss Rivett at the family’s exclusive mews home in Belgravia, Central London, on November 7, 1974.
He had run up huge gambling debts, his volatile marriage to Lady Veronica Lucan had collapsed and the couple were going through a bitter custody battle over their three children.
Police believe he attacked Miss
Rivett with a taped-up piece of lead piping after mistaking her for his wife.
After the attack he fled and was last spotted at the manor house home of Peter and Susan Maxwell-Scott in East Sussex.
At the time there were rumours he had committed suicide by throwing himself off a cross-Channel ferry from Newhaven days after the murder. But no body was ever washed up, and the mystery of his disappearance has endured for 46 years. It has always been thought
Perth in Australia possible that powerful friends may have helped him escape to avoid a lengthy prison sentence.
Lord Lucan was a member of the Clermont Set, a group of powerful, wealthy people including millionaire businessmen Sir James Goldsmith and John Aspinall. There have been sightings in South Africa, the Maldives, India and even India. But, despite extensive police inquiries, he has never been found.
Mr Berriman’s quest began when he discovered 12 years ago that he was Sandra Rivett’s secret son, who had been adopted shortly after birth.
When Lucan was formally declared dead by the High Court on February 3, 2016, he received a detailed tip by letter that Lucan was in fact alive.
He then decided to spend £30,000 of his own cash on a private investigation. As he dug deeper, he claimed evidence showed that Lucan had indeed escaped British justice.
Mr Berriman, who lives with partner Kim in Milland, West Sussex, said: “He
I believe I may have tracked down the man, Lord Lucan, who killed my mother