Is Lord Lucan really James Hewitt?
DO we want to know what happened to Lord Lucan? It’s a better story that we don’t know how he escaped a murder charge (the nanny Sandra Rivett was killed and mother Veronica injued) by disguising himself as James Hewitt. Guessing makes murder into a tabloid parlour game. Today the Daily Mirror leads with:
My dad Lord Lucan: Son breaks silence
Detectives yesterday sensationally announced they are examining our “new material” in a bid to trace the missing aristocrat.
Richard John Bingham was born in December 1934. He’d be 77 now. He’d be an old man looking at his past, if he still had good mental health. His son is George Bingham.
He emails the Mirror:
“I have not, to the best of my knowledge, seen my father since November 1974.”
Front-page news. The Mirror, however, calls it a “twist”.
Lord Lucan’s younger brother Hugh has said he “was sure” the suspected killer fled to Africa. Lady Lucan says her husband is “dead”.
George responds to the story that he was flown to Africa so that his father could see him from afar. A woman using the alias Jill Findlay, claims that her boss John Aspinall (dead) and Sir James Goldsmith (dead) helped Lucan meet his two children in Africa (George has a sister called Frances), possibly in Gabon:
“I’ve never been to Gabon, although I have spent time in Namibia and South Africa recuperating from a decade of coffee-swilling investment banking. I also, as an Arabic speaker, spend a lot of time in North Africa, where I keep a yacht. My father was declared dead by a High Court judge over a decade ago.
“I have a sworn affidavit from the Metropolitan Police and every member of my family, mother excepted, attesting to their belief that my father is dead.
“To suggest that I have met and spoken with my father is to make me a possible accessory to a grisly murder. It is to call me a criminal.”
He adds:
“I am unwilling to open up the story to endless scrutiny.”
So. Why speak at all?
Another email is quoted:
“I haven’t had much enthusiasm for considering this matter. In this country, you are innocent until proven guilty by proper trial, not by inquest juries.”
Such are the facts – and the front-page news scoops…
Posted: 7th, March 2012 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
