The extraordinary tale of how a Buddhist monk in an Aussie town wrongly became embroiled in the bloodstained mystery of Lord Lucan – as he breaks his silence

The mystery of Lord Lucan – the infamous aristocrat suspected of murdering his children’s nanny and deposing his wife – has obsessed and captivated Britain for fifty years.

But the trail to the world’s most wanted man seemed to have finally gone cold, after years of sightings in all corners of the globe yielded only shadows and whispers.

That was until 2020, when the murdered nanny’s adopted son claimed that a British-born Australian monk was actually a Lucan in disguise, which in turn reignited one of Britain’s most enduring mysteries.

Now the accused monk, who lives in a retreat in rural Queensland, has spoken out in an attempt to put the accusation to rest – and revealed details of his equally colorful life.

Christopher Newman, a British-born Buddhist who lived in Bundaberg in southeast Queensland, was wrongly believed to be Lord Lucan, a notorious aristocrat and gambler who disappeared from London on November 7, 1974 after is 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 the next day in Newhaven, a port town on the south coast of England.

No trace of the mustached pear was ever found.

Nevertheless, the mysterious disappearance has captivated the British public for the past half century, with dozens of breathlessly reported sightings of Lucan living under a new identity in far-flung locations including Cape Town, Hong Kong and the Bahamas making headlines over the years.

A car belonging to Lord Lucan, whose real name was Richard John Bingham, was found abandoned and soaked in blood the next day in Newhaven, a port town on the south coast of England. No trace of the mustached pear was ever found again (photo: Lord Lucan with his wife Veronica)

But a big break came in the case when Neil Berriman, the son of Sandra Rivett – the nanny who was beaten to death – claimed to have found an almost exact facial match for Lucan who lived Down Under in 2022.

After seventeen arduous 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 some uncanny similarities between Mr Newman and the missing Lord Lucan, apart from the fact that they are the same age and similar features, which according to a respected facial recognition expert ‘indicated they were conclusively the same person’.

These include a cut on his left nostril, the fact that he speaks with a posh British accent and went to the same school as Lucan, while he also claimed to have associated with members of the royal family in his youth.

He also admits to changing his name several times 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 documentary series on the BBC called ‘Lucan’, culminates in a tense confrontation with the man he believes killed his mother.

Accompanied by his mother’s former boyfriend, Mr Berriman traveled to Mr Newman’s rural home in Bundaberg.

A heated off-camera encounter ensued during which the frail monk reportedly said to Mr Berriman: ‘And what if I’m Lord Lucan? What are you going to do about it? Put me in jail?’

This publication subsequently refuted Mr Berriman’s theory by consulting a British government-approved team of facial recognition experts in November 2022, who definitively ruled out Mr Newman as Lord Lucan.

BBC investigative journalist Glen Campbell also discovered that Mr Newman was starring in a drag queen show called Facade in Canada under the names Peter Jason/Jenny Romain.

The show was staged in 1969 – five years before Lord Lucan committed the murders, casting further doubt on whether it could have been him.

Mr Newman eventually agreed to do an extended sit-down interview on camera with the programme’s producer, in which he claims to have been ‘born at Stonehenge and raised by the Druids’.

He told the program that his biological father was a puppeteer who performed for the young Princesses Elizabeth (the late Queen) and Margaret at Buckingham Palace and claimed he had changed his name so many times to throw off “other energies”.

His birth certificate names him as Derek Crowther, born in Islington, north London, in 1936, the son of a railway wagon cleaner.

A major break came in the case when Neil Berriman (pictured), the son of Sandra Rivett – the nanny who was beaten to death (pictured below) – claimed to have found an almost exact facial match for Lucan living Down Under in 2022.

Lord Lucan was named as Ms Rivett’s killer in 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 when he asks if he is Lucan, Mr. Newman ultimately loses his monkish patience.

“I don’t know who the hell Lord Lucan is, okay?” Mr. Newman snapped.

“Now, if you’re done, I’m getting bored with this interview.”

The producer then asked if there was a Buddhist approach for Mr Berriman to find peace after his 17-year search for his mother’s killer hit a dead end.

But Mr. Newman failed to provide any spiritual comfort.

“Are you aware that the world is on the verge of a massive collapse?” he said.

“The entire human race, millions of years of evolution, is about to end. All of you.’

Later he shouted, ‘I’m not much of a Buddhist. I am nothing.’

Once again he categorically denied that he was Lord Lucan.

“Wherever you are, Neil, I can assure you that I am not, never have been and never will be that man,” he said.

Despite the amount of evidence to the contrary, Mr. Berriman remains convinced that he is Lucan.

Lord Lucan was named as Ms Rivett’s killer in an inquest into her death in 1975.

In 2016, a court issued a certificate of ‘presumption of death’ for Lucan, a ruling that paved the way for his son, George Bingham, to become the 8th Earl of Lucan.