The Lord Lucan murder is one of the world’s most intriguing crime mysteries.
Now a new podcast, The Trial Of Lord Lucan, examines the case in minute detail — with an intriguing twist sure to enthrall lovers of True Crime and history.
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 a bombshell new document and unheard evidence in an unmissable spin on courtroom drama.
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 wife Veronica, who told police her Eton-educated husband was responsible 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. His three children were upstairs.
Today barristers Max Hardy and Edward Henry KC debate the strengths and weaknesses of the Crown case against Lord Lucan. The Trial hears from a French woman who spent a year as his children’s nanny before Sandra Rivett got the job.
Pierrette Goletto, now 78, gives an extraordinary ‘through the keyhole’ account of life behind the front door at 46, Lower Belgrave Street, Belgravia – including her encounters with the ‘tall and handsome’ peer and her difficult relationship with the temperamental Lady Lucan.
In the run up to the tragedy, the Lucans were at war following a bitter custody battle for their children and would have frequent shouting matches in the family home.
Lord Lucan may have been cast as the beast of Belgravia, but Pierrette Goletto speaks highly of his character and his love for his three children.
‘I don’t think he was a violent man,’ she says. ‘He could shout, but she (Lady Lucan) was shouting as well.’
Discussing who killed Mrs Rivett, she declares controversially: ‘I don’t think he did it’, and then admits that she still feels guilt over what happened.
Had she still been the nanny, she explains, the killer would not have mistaken her for Lady Lucan because of her strong French accent.
Prosecutor Mr Hardy says it is not suggested that Lucan was prone to ‘this type of conduct’ before Mr Henry, defending the peer, makes the astonishing claim that two people may have been involved in the Rivett murder.
An alleged conversation between Lucan and one of his close friends, weeks before the murder, is discussed at length. Debt-ridden Lucan is said to have remarked he could dump his estranged wife’s body in the Solent and nobody would find it. But Mr Henry is sceptical over whether this would be allowed as evidence in the trial.
The significance of another witness, Susan Maxwell-Scott — who DCS Ranson believed was ‘infatuated’ with her friend Lucan and didn’t tell the police the whole truth — is also debated at length by the opposing barristers, as is whether the Crown should call the Earl’s mother, the Dowager Lady Lucan, who spoke to him twice on the telephone just hours after the Rivett murder.
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.