Lady Lucan launches a bitter attack on her son
WHEN I disclosed this week that the Earl of Lucan’s son and heir, George Bingham, had become engaged, friends of the fugitive peer’s wife, Veronica, expressed their hope that the wedding would bring about a reconciliation of the estranged family.
It is 33 years since George and his two sisters, Frances and Camilla, have been on speaking terms with their mother, the Countess of Lucan.
Now, however, Lady Lucan has quashed such hopes with a rare public intervention in which she charges her son with ‘bartering the accidental privilege of his birth’ by abandoning her to live with his aunt and uncle when he was a teenager.
She accuses George — who was seven when his nanny, Sandra Rivett, 29, was bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe at the family’s townhouse — of withholding important belongings from her.
George and his sisters lived with their mother in Belgravia following Lucan’s disappearance in 1974. Veronica was hurt in the attack and her husband was named as the murderer at Rivett’s inquest.
Custody was transferred to Veronica’s sister, Christina Shand Kydd, and her husband, Bill, eight years later after Lady Lucan reportedly became mentally ill. However, Veronica tells me: ‘I did not suffer a mental breakdown. Custody of my children was transferred to the Shand Kyddsdds because my son declared in an affidavit that he would find it much more congenial to live as partart of the family of his aunt and uncle.’
Lady Lucan adds, witheringly: ‘I did not attendend the [custody] hearing and I did not apply for access. My son bartered the accidental privilege ege of his birth to live as part of another family.’
She says it’s ‘ extremely unlikely’ ly’ that she will attend the wedding whenen George, 47, ties the knot with Danish sh industrialist’s daughter Anne-Sofiefie Foghsgaard, 37. ‘I just wish I coulduld have my stolen property back,’ shehe says. ‘Photographs, negatives, letters,rs, files and documents.’
Veronica, 78, says her son addeded insult to injury when he announceded his engagement formally in the Dailyil Telegraph after my article.
‘He rudely described me as Veronica, Countess of Lucan,’ she says. ‘ My husband and I were never divorced and the announcement should have been written as the Earl and Countess of Lucan. To do otherwise is not only incorrect but gives the impression we were divorced. When, and if, the Lord Chancellor accepts my husband’s death I will be styled Dowager Countess of Lucan.’