UK court grants death certificate for notorious earl

Following a judge’s Wednesday ruling, a death certificate has been issued for Lord Lucan, who the New York Times recounts as “a dashing British aristocrat” last seen on November 7, 1974-the day that his children’s nanny was found dead, allegedly by his hand.

Outside the court, George Bingham – now the 8th Earl – said: “I’ve heard the most freakish range of theories, some of them reasonably tasteless”.

Lucan disappeared after Sandra Rivett was found dead at 46 Lower Belgrave St, Belgravia on 7 November, 1974.

Bingham, 48, launched a High Court bid to obtain a death certificate for his father a year ago, bringing to an end one chapter in a story full of unanswered questions that revolves around London high society of the 1970s and its gambling underworld.

“I am very happy with the judgment of the court in this matter”, said Bingham. “It has been a very long time coming”.

The High Court declared Lord Lucan dead in 1999, so that his will could be activated.

“Nonetheless I am very pleased with the result that we achieved today”. Today, Bingham used new legislation to successfully apply for a death certificate to be issued.

“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”.

He added: “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”.

Rivett’s son Neil Berriman told reporters he bore no ill feeling towards Bingham but hoped the mystery would be explained with the help of new evidence in the next year.

After his disappearance, Lucan’s vehicle was found abandoned and soaked in blood in Newhaven, East Sussex.

“Maybe the police know more than they let on”, he said in a statement outside court, in front of a press scrum. So the mystery remains.

“Closure for us is when we can actually get closure for Sandra”, he added. A frightful death, a young woman beaten – my mother.