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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Lord Lucan death certificate granted | Lord Lucan death certificate granted |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Lord Lucan is now presumed to be dead, a High Court judge has ruled. | Lord Lucan is now presumed to be dead, a High Court judge has ruled. |
| A death certificate has been issued 42 years after the peer vanished when his children's nanny Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death in London. | |
| He was declared dead in 1999, despite dozens of unverified sightings, but the new ruling gives his son the right to inherit the family title. | He was declared dead in 1999, despite dozens of unverified sightings, but the new ruling gives his son the right to inherit the family title. |
| His son, Lord Bingham, said: "I am very happy with the judgment of the court in this matter." | |
| "It has been a very long time coming." | |
| Ms Rivett's son, Neil Berriman, 49, said: "I think [Lucan is] dead. It is fantastic and I am very pleased for [Bingham]." | |
| Lucan disappeared when Ms Rivett was murdered at 46 Lower Belgrave St, Belgravia on 7 November, 1974. | |
| He drove to a friend's house in East Sussex in a borrowed car, which was later found abandoned in Newhaven with bloodstains inside. | He drove to a friend's house in East Sussex in a borrowed car, which was later found abandoned in Newhaven with bloodstains inside. |
| The mystery of his whereabouts excited decades of speculation. | The mystery of his whereabouts excited decades of speculation. |
| At a hearing in December Mr Berriman was given permission to intervene in the case. | |
| 'Admitted crime' | |
| Over the years many theories have been put forward about what happened to Lucan. | |
| Lady Lucan said at the time of the incident that her husband admitted committing the crime and had said it was a mistake. It has also been reported that she believes Lucan jumped to his death off a ferry leaving Newhaven. | |
| The first reported sightings of Lucan occurred soon after the murder. In January 1975 he was supposedly spotted in Melbourne, Australia, and five months later he was apparently seen in France. | |
| Police in Cape Town went so far as to check fingerprints on a beer glass, reputedly held by the peer. | |
| Other 'sightings' included an ex-Nazi colony in Paraguay, a sheep station in the Australian outback, backpacking on Mount Etna and working as a waiter in San Francisco. There were even claims that he fled to India and lived life as a hippy called "Jungly Barry". | |
| 'Tasteless' theories | |
| Outside the High Court, George Bingham - now the 8th Earl - said: "I've heard the most bizarre range of theories, some of them reasonably tasteless. | |
| "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." | |
| Timeline | Timeline |