Rarely has any murder case been the subject of so much intrigue.
But now, as the 50th anniversary approaches, the Crown’s case against Lord Lucan can finally be revealed after the Mail obtained a bombshell 60-page report outlining Scotland Yard’s evidence against him.
The document is examined in a fascinating new Mail podcast The Trial Of Lord Lucan.
In it the case is examined in minute detail — with an intriguing twist.
In episodes released daily from Monday June 3 to Friday June 7, two real-life eminent barristers will argue whether Lord Lucan was innocent or guilty using the bombshell new document and unheard evidence in an unmissable spin on courtroom drama.
The Lord Lucan case is one of the world’s most enduring crime mysteries. It will be 50 years this November 7 since the 39-year-old British aristocrat vanished without trace within hours of the murder of his nanny Sandra Rivett, 29, and the near fatal assault on his estranged wife Veronica, who blamed her Eton-educated husband for both attacks.
Police have long believed that Lucan killed mother-of-two Mrs Rivett in the basement kitchen of his family’s five-storey Belgravia home in Central London, after mistaking her for his estranged wife.
Today The Trial Of Lord Lucan hears from one of the few surviving witnesses from the night of the Rivett killing, Chris Baddick, who as a rookie policeman attended the murder scene after Lady Lucan raised the alert at the nearby Plumbers Arms.
Not only did he discover Mrs Rivett’s body in a U.S. mail sack and took her pulse to check whether she was dead, he also trampled on the murder weapon by accident — a lead pipe — believing initially that it was a discarded toy.
In gripping testimony Mr Baddick, now in his 70s, reveals how he and a colleague scoured the Lucan family home in darkness looking for the murderer before CID detectives arrived to take control.
Later that night, he was sent to Lucan’s mother’s address in North London, where he overheard a telephone call from the fugitive to her.
Both barristers agree that Mr Baddick’s evidence is important in understanding the chaos at 46, Lower Belgrave Street and the problems faced by forensic experts as they searched for evidence.
Defence KC Edward Henry says there was an extraordinary amount of blood in the garden, including on leaves, after officers trampled through the crime scene, ‘degrading’ the evidence.
Prosecutor Max Hardy says, with some understatement, that ‘regrettably (it was) not a well preserved crime scene’ and this was unhelpful to the prosecution.
All the defence need to do is to create a ‘reasonable doubt’, he explains. Attention then switches to a debate about the motive in the case, in particular Lucan’s dire finances.
Mr Hardy says the peer could not even afford to pay the milkman but Mr Henry says that although cash poor, Lucan still had assets in land.
Two things have to be ‘confronted head on in this case’, says the defence barrister: the evidence of Lady Lucan and the forensics.
If her account stands up to cross-examination, it is ‘game over’ for Lord Lucan, he explains.
And he says it is vital for the defence to attack the forensics, to ‘inject an element of doubt’ in the case.
Lord Lucan would have to explain why lead piping was also found in his abandoned car, he adds.
The trial hears from an eminent forensic expert about the challenges in the case. In his report, Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Ranson described Lucan as an Edwardian aristocrat in ‘manner and appearance’.
Mr Hardy agrees, saying he had a ‘carefully cultivated image’ — Brylcreem in his hair, an officer’s moustache from the 19th century and a passion for speed (bobsleighing, power boats and fast cars). But the Playboy image may have been a shell, says Mr Henry.
The opposing barristers agree that Lucan was in the ‘grip of a gambling addiction’.
Listen to The Trial of Lord Lucan here, as well as everywhere you usually get your podcasts.
In a world-exclusive true crime podcast event, The Mail brings you The Trial Of Lord Lucan.
In episodes released daily from Monday 3 June to Friday 7 June, two real-life eminent barristers will argue whether Lord Lucan was innocent or guilty using the bombshell new document and unheard-of evidence in an unmissable twist on courtroom drama.
Follow the highs and lows of the case in forensic detail in the podcast, and then on Friday 7 we’ll ask YOU to act as a jury here on Mail Online in a fascinating public vote.
So will you clear Lucan… or not? Listen to the podcast and decide for yourself.
Listen to The Trial Of Lord Lucan everywhere you usually get your podcasts.