Son of Lord Lucan: My father is dead
George Bingham can now inherit murderer’s title
THE onl y s on of t he suspected murderer Lord Lucan has i nherited his father’s title, almost 42 years after the peer disappeared.
A British court yesterday removed the final impediment preventing George Bingham from becoming the 8th Earl of Lucan when it granted a death certificate for his father.
Mr Bingham’s father vanished after nanny Sandra Rivett was found murdered at the family home in London on November 7, 1974.
Lord Lucan’s car was found abandoned and soaked in blood in Newhaven, East Sussex, southern England. Despite numerous rumours and searches, he was never seen again. An inquest jury declared him Ms Rivett’s killer a year later.
At London’s High Court yesterday, Mrs Justice Asplin said that none of Lord Lucan’s family members or closest friends had seen or heard from him, or had any reason to believe he was still alive.
Agreeing the evidence all pointed in one direction, she said she was satisfied that the missing peer had not been known to be alive for a period of at least seven years.
Afterwards, Mr Bingham said: ‘My own personal view, and it was one I took as an eight-year-old boy, is that he has unfortunately been dead since that time.
‘In the circumstances I would think it possible that he saw his life at an end, regardless of guilt or otherwise. Being dragged through the courts and the media would have destroyed his personal life, his career and the chances of getting the custody of his children back.
‘And that may well have pushed a man to end his own life, but I have no idea.’
He said the aristocratic title was his legal right and he would be adopting it immediately.
Although his predecessors left for Britain many generations ago, Mr Bingham still owns the freehold title to several properties around Mayo, allowing him to charge rent. He has never attempted to do so.
Recently Councillor Johnny Mee told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘I don’t think the people will pay any rent to the son of the infamous Lord Lucan.
‘They won’t pay and I would advise them very strongly not to.’
Mr Bingham expressed sympathy with Ms Rivett’s son Neil Berriman, saying: ‘Our family has no idea how our own father, my father, met his own end and whether he did so at his own hand or the hand of others on that fateful evening.
‘It is a mystery, and it may well remain that way forever.
‘I would ask, with a very quiet voice, for everyone to consider a person did die here in terrible circumstances, and a family lost a father. We, none of us, know actually what happened, nor will we ever.
‘And as a British person, I still prefer to consider a person innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.’
Mr Berriman said: ‘At the end we have to get to the truth and justice for Sandra. A horrible death, a young woman beaten – my mother.’
Lord Lucan, a father of three, was officially declared dead by the UK High Court in 1999. There have been reported sightings here and in Australia, Africa and New Zealand, and even claims he fled to India and lived as a hippy called ‘Jungle Barry’.
‘People won’t pay rent to the Lucans’