A former female impersonator who converted to Buddhism has denied claims he is missing British peer Lord Lucan in a new BBC documentary.
Cameras followed Neil Berriman – the son of murdered Lucan nanny Sandra Rivett – as he tracked down the man he believed to be the missing aristocrat, now living in Australia.
Mr Berriman accused ‘Old Etonian’ Christopher Bell, 87, of being Lucan and of having killed his mother on November 7, 1974, before going on the run for decades.
In a bizarre confrontation over a WhatsApp video call, Mr Bell initially appears to confirm his suspicions, but then later tells the BBC: ‘I do not know who the hell Lord Lucan is.’ He adds: ‘I can assure you, I’m not that man, never have been, never will be.’
The brutal murder of Ms Rivett in the Lucan family home in Belgravia, London, shocked Britain and prompted a five-decade manhunt for the prime suspect, the 7th Earl of Lucan.
Neil Berriman accused ‘Old Etonian’ Christopher Bell (pictured), 87, of being Lucan and of having killed his mother on November 7, 1974, before going on the run for decades
Lord Lucan with his fiancee Veronica Duncan in 1963. The brutal murder of Ms Rivett in the Lucan family home in Belgravia, London, shocked Britain and prompted a five-decade manhunt for the prime suspect, the 7th Earl of Lucan
Neil Berriman, son of Sandra Rivett, the murdered nanny that worked for Lord Lucan
Sandra Rivett was brutally murdered in the darkened basement kitchen of Lord Lucan’s family Belgravia home
Pictured: Police dog handlers search for Lord Lucan on the downs above Newhaven Harbour following the aristocrat’s disappearance
Mr Berriman, who Ms Rivett gave up for adoption as a baby, spent years attempting to trace the missing peer, and the new BBC Two documentary shows the dramatic moment when he confronts Mr Bell.
During the exchange, Mr Berriman told Mr Bell: ‘I know that you’re Lord Lucan,’ but added, ‘I don’t want to do anything about it.’
Mr Bell responds: ‘There actually isn’t much you can do about it, it’s all in the hands of the divine.’
Mr Berriman, a builder from Hampshire, asks about ‘the woman that you killed’, and Mr Bell replies: ‘She came from a background that was very horrendous. She was in a great deal of pain and stress.’
During the often confused exchange, Mr Bell continues: ‘I have no memory of killing anybody, of terminating anybody’s life… As far as I know I’ve never taken the life of anyone.’
Mr Bell claims to be descended from English aristocracy, to have been educated at Eton and to have been friends with Princess Margaret. But he also says he left Britain in 1966, eight years before the Lucan murder, and that he worked as a ‘female impersonator’ in Canada before travelling to India and meeting the Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
In the documentary, Mr Bell says he was conceived ‘at a magical ritual at Stonehenge’, and that his biological father was a puppeteer who performed at Buckingham Palace for Princess Elizabeth (the late Queen) and her sister Princess Margaret.
His birth certificate names him as Derek Crowther, born in Islington, north London, in 1936, the son of a railway carriage cleaner.
At one point Mr Berriman, 57, is convinced his suspicions have been confirmed by artificial intelligence facial recognition technology which matches Mr Bell’s features to those of Lord Lucan.
It has been almost 50 years since British aristocrat Lord Lucan (pictured), 39, vanished without a trace
He disappeared after nanny Sandra Rivett (pictured) was bludgeoned to death in the family home
The Plumbers Arms, where Lady Lucan ran to after finding Sandra dead in her house
Lord Lucan’s wife Veronica Mary Duncan (pictured here with him)
Lady Lucan (pictured) later died age 80
But analysis by a Home Office-approved team of recognition experts ruled him out in 2022. The documentary also showed investigative journalist Glen Campbell telling Mr Berriman he believes they have got it wrong, and Mr Bell’s vehement denial that he is the missing peer.
The three-part documentary follows Mr Berriman as he reveals how he learnt he was adopted and that Ms Rivett was his biological mother.
Her battered body was discovered in a mail bag in the blood-stained basement of the Lucan home after his wife Lady Veronica Lucan ran into a nearby pub screaming that their nanny had been murdered.
Lucan’s car was found abandoned, soaked in blood, in Newhaven, East Sussex.
An inquest jury later declared him the killer, but he has never been found.
– The first episode of Lucan is on BBC Two tonight at 9pm and then on BBC iPlayer.
