The mystery of Lord Lucan, the infamous aristocrat suspected of murdering his children’s nanny and attempting to liquidate his wife, has obsessed and captivated the United Kingdom for five decades.
But the trail of the world’s most wanted man seemed to have finally gone cold after years of sightings in all corners of the world that cast nothing but shadows and whispers.
That was until 2020, when the adopted son of the murdered nanny alleged that a British-born Australian monk was actually Lucan in disguise, in turn reigniting one of the UK’s most enduring mysteries.
Now the accused monk, who lives at a retreat in rural Queensland, has spoken out in a bid to put an end to the allegation and revealed details of his equally colorful life.
Christopher Newman, a British-born Buddhist living in Bundaberg, south-east Queensland, was mistakenly believed to be Lord Lucan, an infamous aristocrat and gambler who disappeared from London on 7 November 1974 after being suspected of the murder of his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, and the attempted murder of his wife, Veronica.
A car belonging to Lord Lucan, whose real name was Richard John Bingham, was found abandoned and soaked in blood in Newhaven, a port town on the south coast of England, the next day.
No trace of the mustachioed pair has ever been found.
Despite this, the mysterious disappearance has captivated the British public for the last half century, with dozens of sightings of Lucan, breathlessly reported, living under a new identity in remote places such as Cape Town, Hong Kong and the Bahamas, occupying headlines over the years.
Christopher Newman (pictured), a British-born Buddhist living in Bundaberg, south-east Queensland, was mistakenly believed to be Lord Lucan, an infamous aristocrat and gambler who disappeared from London on 7 November 1974 after being suspected of killing his children’s babysitter.
A car belonging to Lord Lucan, whose real name was Richard John Bingham, was found abandoned and soaked in blood in Newhaven, a port town on the south coast of England, the next day. No trace of the mustachioed pair has ever been found (pictured: Lord Lucan with his wife Veronica)
But a breakthrough in the case came when Neil Berriman, the son of Sandra Rivett, the nanny who was beaten to death, claimed to have found a near-exact facial match for Lucan who will be living in Australia in 2022.
After 17 painstaking years, he identified Christopher Newman, an 89-year-old Buddhist monk currently being cared for at a retreat outside Bundaberg, as the man responsible.
There are a number of striking similarities between Newman and the late Lord Lucan beyond sharing the same age and similar characteristics, which one respected facial recognition expert said “conclusively indicated that they were the same individual.”
These include a cut on his left nostril, the fact that he speaks with a posh British accent and that he attended the same school as Lucan, and that he also claims to have rubbed shoulders with members of the royal family in his youth.
He also admits to changing his name on multiple occasions and living under different identities, first in Nepal before moving to Australia and living in Buddhist communities in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.
Mr Berriman’s dogged detective work, now the subject of a three-part BBC documentary series called ‘Lucan’, culminates in a tense confrontation with the man he believes murdered his mother.
Along with her mother’s ex-boyfriend, Berriman traveled to Newman’s rural home in Bundaberg.
A heated off-camera encounter followed in which the frail monk allegedly told Mr Berriman: ‘What if I were Lord Lucan? What the fuck are you going to do about it? Put me in prison?
This publication subsequently refuted Mr. Berriman’s theory by consulting a team of facial recognition experts approved by the UK government in November 2022, who definitively ruled out Mr. Newman as Lord Lucan.
Glen Campbell, an investigative journalist appearing on the BBC programme, also discovered that Newman starred in a drag show called Facade in Canada under the names Peter Jason/Jenny Romain.
The show was presented in 1969, five years before Lord Lucan committed the murders, casting even more doubt on whether it could be him.
Newman eventually agreed to do a rambling on-camera interview with the show’s producer, where he claims to have been “born in Stonehenge and raised by the Druids.”
He told the program that his biological father was a puppeteer who performed for young Princesses Elizabeth (the late Queen) and Margaret at Buckingham Palace and claimed he had changed his name so frequently to throw away “different energies”.
His birth certificate names him as Derek Crowther, born in Islington, north London, in 1936, the son of a railway carriage cleaner.
A breakthrough in the case came when Neil Berriman (pictured), the son of Sandra Rivett, the babysitter who was beaten to death (pictured below), claimed to have found an almost exact facial match for Lucan who will live in Australia in 2022.
Lord Lucan was named as Ms Rivett’s killer at an inquest into her death in 1975.
He also claimed to have been a “female impersonator” in Canada before moving to India, where he was considered the “Western incarnation of the Dalai Lama.”
But upon asking him if he is Lucan, Mr. Newman finally loses his monastic patience.
“I don’t know who the hell Lord Lucan is, okay?” Mr. Newman snapped.
“Now, if you’re done, I’m getting bored of this interview.”
The producer then asked if there was a Buddhist approach for Berriman to find peace after his 17-year search for his mother’s killer hit a dead end.
But Newman failed to offer any spiritual comfort.
‘Are you aware that the world is about to suffer a tremendous collapse?’ he said.
‘The entire human race, millions of years of evolution, is about to end. All of you.’
He later shouted, “I’m not a fucking Buddhist.” I am nothing.’
Once again, he categorically denied being Lord Lucan.
“Wherever you are, Neil, I can assure you that I am not that man, I never have been, I never will be,” he said.
Despite the weight of evidence to the contrary, Berriman remains convinced that he is Lucan.
Lord Lucan was named as Ms Rivett’s killer at an inquest into her death in 1975.
In 2016, a court issued a “presumption of death” certificate for Lucan, a ruling that paved the way for his son, George Bingham, to become the 8th Earl of Lucan.