The son of Lord Lucan’s murdered nanny broke down in tears as he recalled the devastating moment he discovered who his real mother was.
Sandra Rivett was just 29 years old when her dead body was found in a mail sack in the basement of Lord Lucan’s townhouse in Belgravia in November 1974.
The aristocrat subsequently went on the run and was last seen at Ian Maxwell-Scott’s home in Uckfield, Sussex – where he told his friend’s wife he had had a ‘traumatic night of unbelievable coincidence’ and was going to ‘lie doggo for a while’.
50 years on, Lord Lucan – who was declared ‘presumed dead’ in 2015 – has never been brought to justice for Sandra’s murder, despite an inquest in 1975 finding him guilty of murder.
To mark the anniversary of the case that scandalised Britain, Sandra’s son Neil Berriman – who was given up for adoption as a baby – has appeared in the new BBC Two documentary series Lucan.
In the first episode, which airs at 9pm on Wednesday, Neil, from Petersfield, Hampshire, reveals how his adoptive mother Audrey would often tell him to look out a brown envelope containing the truth about his real family in later life.
She would tell him: ‘You should open it. There’s items in the envelope that [will give you] the answers to some questions.’
Neil continued: ‘I remember saying, “No, mum. I’m not interested. I don’t need the brown envelope.’
The merchant banker appeared visibly emotional as he recalled how Audrey told him he would find the answers ‘when he needed them’ on her deathbed.
Three years after she passed away from cancer, Neil decided to look out the envelope – which contained correspondence regarding his adoption and a Mail on Sunday newspaper article from 1994 where a man named Stephen Hensby detailed how he only learned Sandra was his mother, not his sister, after her death.
In 2007, Neil said he only knew the basics of the Lucan affair – and had no idea he had a personal connection to it.
He continued: ‘It was then that I managed to put two and two together.’
On Neil’s adoption order, the case workers revealed that the name he was given at birth was Gary Roger Hensby.
Neil said: ‘So Stephen – the boy from the newspaper article – must be my brother. But [the nanny] can’t be connected to me because she’s called Sandra Rivett.
‘I read the article one last time and down [at] the bottom I then realised her name was actually Sandra Eleanor Hensby.’
As he looked back on the devastating moment he discovered his real family history, Neil fought back tears.
He said: ‘I am the son of Sandra Eleanor Hensby – also known as the nanny murdered by Lord Lucan in 1974.
‘A single letter is what I was expecting. This just doesn’t happen, does it?
‘The chances of you being adopted and finding out that your mother is [involved] in one of the biggest murder mysteries of all time. It’s unbelievable.’
In March 1964, Sandra Hensby welcomed her first son Stephen with her fiance John. At the time of his birth, their relationship was reportedly at breaking point, which is why Sandra gave Stephen her surname.
The following year, Sandra’s parents Albert and Enich Hensby officially adopted Stephen.
In 1966, Sandra welcomed her second son – whom she shared with a married man who had employed her as a housekeeper.
According to the adoption agency, the man’s wife had been in hospital when Neil was conceived and Sandra ‘did not feel she could possibly bring this baby up properly herself’.
Sandra went on to marry Roger Rivett, who was in the Royal Navy, in June 1967 but the the couple divorced six years later.
She had been working for Lord Lucan and his wife Veronica for just 10 weeks when she was murdered.
According to the police report, Lord Lucan was ‘devoted to his children’, and it proved a bitter blow when Lady Lucan later won an acrimonious custody battle for them following their separation in 1973.
On November 7 that year, Lady Lucan was watching television in her bedroom on the second floor of her home with her daughter Frances and the 29-year-old nanny. The other two children were in bed.
The Met Report read: ‘Thursdays were usually Sandra Rivett’s night off, but she had not gone out that evening. At approximately 8.55pm Sandra Rivett asked Lady Lucan whether she would like a cup of tea… and went down to the basement, where the kitchen was.
‘At about 9.15pm Lady Lucan went to the basement to see what was taking Sandra so long. She got to the top of the stairs that led to the basement and was surprised to see that there were no lights on.
‘She shouted “Sandra, Sandra”. Then she heard a noise from a room behind her and she was struck over the head a number of times. At this stage, she had not seen her attacker.
‘She fell to the ground and started to scream. Her attacker then put his gloved fingers down her throat and told her to ‘shut up’. She recognised the voice as Lord Lucan’s. A struggle ensued, during which Lady Lucan bit his fingers and grabbed his genitalia.’
At this stage her attacker gave up the fight. ‘He seemed to lose strength and Lady Lucan tried to talk to him. She asked him where Sandra was, he initially said she had gone out. He then said, ‘I’ve killed her, she came down first, if it had been you, you would have got it’.’
Lady Lucan managed to persuade her husband to go upstairs with her, so that she could clean her injuries. They went up to Lady Lucan’s bedroom.
Lord Lucan placed a towel on the bed and Lady Lucan lay on it. He went to use the bathroom, whereupon she ran out of the house to The Plumbers Arms nearby.
‘When she got into the pub,’ the report says, ‘she collapsed on the floor and screamed, ‘He’s murdered the nanny and he’s after the children’. The police and an ambulance were called.
‘The first officers on the scene spoke to Lady Lucan. She told them that the nanny had been murdered and she gave them her address. Lady Lucan was taken to St George’s Hospital, SW1.’
Police went to the family home and forced the door open. According to the Met dossier, officers discovered Sandra Rivett’s body in a canvas United States mailbag in the basement.
After driving to Ian Maxwell-Scott’s home in Uckfield, Sussex, Lord Lucan is thought to have gone to Newhaven harbour – where his car was later found dumped nearby.
Previous reports have noted difficult weather on the night before Lucan’s Ford Corsair was found, and said harbour logs showed no boat leaving.
Friends had suggested the professional gambler peer had killed himself by jumping off a Channel ferry from Newhaven.
But in one of the two blood-stained letters claimed to have been sent by Lucan after the murder he had said he was planning to ‘lie “doggo” for a bit’.
There have been persistent rumours he hid out in southern Africa, supported by his set of wealthy gamblers.
The inquest into Miss Rivett’s death in 1975 ended with the jury ruling she had died as a result of ‘Murder by Lord Lucan’.
Speaking to the Mail in 2015, Neil said: ‘I don’t feel angry with my mother for putting me up for adoption. I believe she felt she was doing what was best for me.
‘Everyone tells me Sandra loved children, even though she wasn’t in a position to bring up her own […] I like to think that, had she lived, she would have been thrilled that I’d tracked her down and we would have built a relationship.’
Listen to the first episode of the Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial of Lord Lucan here.
Lucan airs at 9pm on BBC Two on Wednesday and is also available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
