Grandmother gives backing to aristocrat held over drug haul in Kenya
THE grandmother of an aristocrat accused of smuggling £4.5million of cocaine into Kenya yesterday came out fighting on his behalf.
Lady Cawdor – first wife of the infamous 6th Earl of Cawdor – said her grandson Jack Marrian was completely innocent and she planned to call him in Kenya to tell him she loves him.
Cathryn Campbell was speaking at her farmhouse on the Cawdor estate, the family seat near Nairn.
Her grandson believes he has become the ‘fall guy’ for an international drugs cartel which ‘hijacked’ a shipment of sugar from Brazil.
The 31-year-old was arrested at his Nairobi mansion after police discovered more than 200lb of the drug hidden in containers of sugar.
Lady Cawdor said yesterday: ‘Obviously he’s innocent.
‘He is the head of his firm and a highly respected young man who has been with them for ten years. He would not do anything like that.
‘I have not been able to get in touch with him because they took his phone away. I have telephoned his mother – my daughter – and, of course, she is very upset. It’s so unfair. But I am sure the police in Kenya will be fair and there will be a good resolution to this. He knows I love him.’
Mr Marrian, whose full name is Jack Alexander Wolf Marrian, is the eldest son of Lady Emma Campbell, 58, daughter of the late Hugh Campbell and Cathryn.
He looked tired and strained when he appeared in court charged with drugs smuggling offences on Thursday. If convicted he could face a life sentence.
He will appear in court on Monday when his legal team is expected to apply for him to be released on bail.
Kenyan national Roy Francis Mwanthi has also been charged with trafficking the drug. The relationship between the men, if any, is unknown.
Mr Marrian’s involvement at the centre of the police inquiry is a shocking turn of events for the privileged and wealthy young businessman.
He went to the same prep school as triple Tour de France winner Chris Froome and studied at £35,280-a-year Marlborough College when the Duchess of Cambridge was a pupil.
Mr Marrian went on to graduate in economics from Bristol University before settling in the Kenyan capital as an export businessman.
Photographs posted online show him partying with friends while on safari, skiing and travelling across Africa.
The drugs were discovered by ‘Highly respected’: Jack Marrian Kenyan police and US Drug Enforcement Agency officials hidden in containers of sugar at Mombasa port in cargo from Brazil bound for Uganda.
Prosecutors said documents on the ship named Mr Marrian as a director of Mshale Uganda, the firm due to receive the containers.
But Mr Marrian is said to have claimed drug lords tampered with a substantial shipment of sugar and arranged for it to be delivered early without his knowledge.
Drug seizures are rare in Kenya, although the UN says the country has recently become a hub for cocaine trafficking in East Africa.
Investigators are now examining who had access to the containers and whether metal seals designed to protect the cargo from interference were broken.
Mr Marrian’s father David said he is ‘incredibly distressed’ by the situation but that he is a ‘cool customer’ and knows he will be exonerated.
‘I know, and I’m pretty certain police know, he is innocent but this is Kenya and we are terrified of the repercussions,’ he said.
‘But we have good lawyers and we know he is innocent and the Kenyan judiciary has changed. We know the truth will come out. But it’s properly frightening.’
Lady Cawdor’s ancestral home is Cawdor Castle near Nairn, made famous in Macbeth. The estate covers 42,000 acres.
She was Hugh’s first wife and they had five children. They were divorced in 1979 and the Earl married Angelika, Countess Lazansky von Bukowa.
His death sparked a family feud when he left Cawdor Castle to Angelika rather than to his heir, the 7th Earl of Cawdor, Colin Campbell.
‘He knows he will be exonerated’