text: George Bingham, son of the infamous British aristocrat Lord Lucan, reacts as he leaves the High Court in central London on Feb. 3, 2016. A British judge officially declared the infamous aristocrat Lord Lucan dead, nearly 42 years after the playboy aristocrat disappeared following the murder of his children's nanny in an unsolved mystery. (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS, AFP/Getty Images) 
   
   LONDON — A judge has granted a death certificate to the son of Lord Lucan, an aristocrat who disappeared more than 40 years ago, bringing a form of closure to one of the most mysterious cases to enthrall the British public. 
   
   George Bingham can now become the Eighth Earl of Lucan, following the ruling at the High Court in London on Wednesday. 
   
   His father Lord Lucan, born Richard John Bingham, vanished in Nov. 1974 at the age of 39 after Sandra Rivett, his children's nanny, was bludgeoned to death at his home in London. Lucan's estranged wife Lady Lucan was also assaulted but managed to escape. She said Lucan was the attacker and mistook Rivett for her, according to media reports. 
   
   Lord Lucan's car was found abandoned near the southern English coast. He was declared Rivett’s killer by a jury at an inquest in 1975. 
   
   Over the years, sightings have been reported of Lucan in places including Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, none of them verified. Some people believe he committed suicide by drowning himself in the English Channel. 
   
   The latest twist in the decades-old mystery surrounding the fate of Lord Lucan https://t.co/DyDQ8pvUgk — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 30, 2016 
   
   Lucan was declared dead by the High Court in 1999, which Bingham said didn't prove death "for all purposes." His application for the death certificate was made under the Presumption of Death Act, which came into force in 2014. Rivett's son Neil Berriman had opposed the application according to media reports, telling the Daily Mail that if Lucan was still alive, he should be prosecuted. 
   
   Speaking to Britain’s Press Association after the ruling, George Bingham said: "I am very happy with the judgment of the court in this matter. It has been a very long time coming." 
   
   Berriman told the news agency after the judgement Wednesday: "I think he's (Lucan) dead. It is fantastic and I am very pleased for him (Bingham)." 
   
   
   
   Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1SXKMso ||||| Lord Lucan's body was fed to a tiger after he shot himself, a member of the missing peer's gambling set has claimed, the latest twist in the decades-old mystery surrounding the fate of the aristocrat. 
   
   The account comes days before a procedural hearing at the High Court to determine whether a death certificate should finally be issued for Lucan. 
   
   The Eton-educated 7th Earl of Lucan vanished after Sandra Rivett, nanny to his three children , was found murdered at his family home in Belgravia on November 7, 1974. He is said to have mistaken her for his wife Veronica and bludgeoned her to death. 
   
   Three days later, the peer's blood-soaked car was found abandoned in Newhaven, East Sussex, and an inquest jury declared him to be Miss Rivett's killer a year later. 
   
   His disappearance sparked speculation that he fled abroad , where various sightings have been reported over the years. 
   
   Photo: Rex 
   
   Now, more than four decades later, a member of the set of wealthy gamblers to which Lord ‘Lucky’ Lucan belonged has given a grisly account of what is said to have happened to the peer. 
   
   In an interview with MailOnline, Philippe Marcq says he was told by Stephen Raphael, another regular at the Clermont Club in Mayfair, shortly after Lucan's disappearance that the peer travelled to a private zoo in Kent owned by his close friend John Aspinall. 
   
   According to 73-year-old Mr Marcq, Raphael claimed he was among a group of friends at Howletts zoo who discussed with Lucan about what he should do next. 
   
   The peer was said to be concerned that he would never see his children again and his wife would get both them and the family trust. 
   
   Lucan’s estranged wife Veronica, the Countess of Lucan, had filed for divorce two years earlier and had successfully fought him for custody of their children. 
   
   Mr Marcq told the newspaper: "They told him: 'Look, it is absolutely terrible what happened. You are a murderer. You tried to kill your wife out of desperation for your children and so they would be free from her influence. 
   
   "But what you have done makes absolutely sure she will be in control of your children for years to come - you are a murderer and you are going to be in a cell for the next 30 years'.” 
   
   Photo: REX 
   
   He was advised the only way to avoid this was for him to vanish without a trace. His friends allegedly told him that, without proof of death, probate could not be granted on his estate for at least seven years - by which time his children would be old enough to look after their own affairs. 
   
   They allegedly dismissed the idea that he flee abroad, saying he was not cut out for a life on the run and he would be returned to the UK. 
   
   Instead, Mr Marcq said a pistol was placed in front of Lucan, who picked it up, went into the next room, and shot himself. The body was then fed to a tiger named Zorra. 
   
   "I was stunned when Stephen told me this, absolutely stunned,’ Mr Marcq said. 
   
   "But I believed what he told me 100 percent ...I felt sworn to secrecy. It was a secret I could not betray - and, until now, I have not." 
   
   According to MailOnline, Mr Marcq is the source of an allegation that emerged during an earlier High Court hearing to determine whether a death certificate should be issued for Lucan, allowing his son George, now Lord Bingham, to adopt his father's surname and title. 
   
   Photo: Alpha Press 
   
   During the hearing, David Vann, an amateur detective who has spent years investigating the peer's disappearance, claimed a member of Lucan's gambling set had emailed him to say he had evidence that Lucan had taken his own life and had never left the country. 
   
   No more details were given, but Mr Vann has said he planned to interview the writer of the email and submit a statement to the full hearing. 
   
   Mr Marcq said he hoped to bring closure to the mystery. However, his account raises a number of questions, none of which can be answered given the principal people said to be involved are all dead. 
   
   Photo: Eddie Mulholland/The Telegraph 
   
   Few facts of the fateful night is known. After killing Miss Rivett, Lucan is suspected of beating his wife over the head, before she managed to escape and raise the alarm. 
   
   Lucan is known to have then driven 42 miles to the home of his friends Ian and Susie Maxwell-Scott, in the Sussex village of Uckfield. 
   
   Mrs Maxwell-Scott was thought to be the last person to see Lucan alive. He left in the early hours of the next day. 
   
   Photo: Keystone Pictures USA / Alamy 
   
   Police reportedly investigated the tiger theory at the time after Aspinall’s mother, Lady Osborne (the grandmother of Chancellor George Osborne) told them: "The last I heard of him (Lucan), he was being fed to the tigers at my son’s zoo." 
   
   When police visited Howletts, Aspinall is said to have responded: "My tigers are only fed the choicest cuts - do you really think they’re going to eat stringy old Lucky?" 
   
   A week after Miss Rivett's body was found, Aspinall, who ran the Clermont Club in Mayfair, told ITV News At Ten: "I find it difficult to imagine him in Brazil or Haiti as a fugitive. 
   
   "I don’t think he has the capacity to adapt. He is a man of enormous virtue and honour. He could rely on many friends to help with advice." 
   
   "I don’t think he has the capacity to adapt. He is a man of enormous virtue and honour. He could rely on many friends to help with advice" John Aspinall 
   
   James Wilson, a fellow member of the Clermont set, told The Telegraph last month he believed Lucan had killed himself - but by drowning himself rather than with a gun. 
   
   He said his instinct led him to believe that his friend decided he had only two paths he could take. 
   
   “John Lucan was a gambler. He gambled on successfully killing his wife and being able to hide her body and get away with murder," Mr Wilson said. 
   
   “But when it went terribly wrong he must have realised he only had two options open to him; hand himself in or kill himself. Having lost the gamble he chose the latter. 
   
   "I believe he parked his car at Newhaven, where he had a boat, weighed himself down and jumped over the side and he’s now at the bottom of the harbour.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lord Bingham, Lord Lucan's son: "I've heard bizarre theories about my father" 
   
   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. 
   
   His son, Lord Bingham, said: "I am very happy with the judgment of the court in this matter." 
   
   More on this story and other news from London 
   
   Speaking outside the court, he added: "It has been a very long time coming." 
   
   Ms Rivett's son, 49-year-old Neil Berriman said: "I think [Lucan is] dead. It is fantastic and I am very pleased for [Bingham]." 
   
   Image copyright Desmond O'Neill Image caption Lord Lucan in 1971 
   
   Lucan disappeared the night 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. 
   
   The mystery of his whereabouts excited decades of speculation. 
   
   'Admitted crime' 
   
   Lady Lucan said at the time of the killing that her husband admitted committing the crime, although he said it was a mistake. It has been reported that she believes Lucan jumped to his death from 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 spotted in France. 
   
   Image copyright PA Image caption Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death in 1974 
   
   Police in Cape Town went so far as to check fingerprints on a beer glass, reputedly held by the peer. 
   
   In 2012, Lucan's brother Hugh Bingham said he was "sure" the missing peer fled to Africa following the nanny's murder. But he then said he was unsure if his sibling was alive or dead. 
   
   'Tasteless' theories 
   
   The author of one book claimed an intruder murdered the nanny and attacked Lady Lucan. In another book, a former senior Scotland Yard detective said that Lucan fled to Goa where he lived a hippy lifestyle as Barry Halpin until his death in 1996. 
   
   Other "sightings" of Lucan located him in 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. 
   
   Daniela Relph, BBC News at the High Court 
   
   Today a new Lord Lucan left the High Court. 
   
   George Bingham had won his fight to have a death certificate issued for his father allowing him to use the family name. He now becomes Lord Lucan in addition to the eighth Earl of Lucan. 
   
   He had always said this legal process had been about gaining "closure." Speaking outside the High Court he accepted that some would view the title Lord Lucan as a tainted title but it was his family name and he wanted the right to use it. 
   
   Next to him in court sat Neil Berriman, the son of Sandra Rivett, the nanny brutally killed in the Lucan family home in November 1974. The pair have struck up a friendship based on their shared history. 
   
   Although Neil Berriman did not object to today's legal ruling, he said he still feels strongly that his mother is the forgotten victim who is still awaiting justice. 
   
   Outside the court, George Bingham - now the 8th Earl - said: "I've heard the most bizarre range of theories, some of them reasonably tasteless. 
   
   Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lord Lucan on his wedding day in 1963 
   
   "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." 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption I can't move on yet, says murdered nanny's son 
   
   Also speaking outside the court, Mr Berriman said the case remained shrouded in mystery. 
   
   "I personally, along with other people I worked with on this case, know that the convenient drowning, shooting that night, of Lord Lucan is not true. 
   
   "Maybe the police know more than they let on. But at the end we have to get to the truth and justice for Sandra. A horrible death, a young woman beaten - my mother. 
   
   "There is no getting away from the fact that, whatever happened that night, Lord Lucan is guilty of something in my eyes." 
   
   Timeline 
   
   18 December 1934 Richard John Bingham is born in London into an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family 
   
   1963 Marries Veronica Duncan, with whom he has three children 
   
   Marries Veronica Duncan, with whom he has three children 1964 Ascends to the earldom on the death of his father 
   
   1972 Their marriage collapses and Lucan moves out of the family home at 46 Lower Belgrave St, London. He loses a custody battle and accrues gambling losses 
   
   November 7 1974 The children's nanny Sandra Rivett is found dead. Her attacker also beat Lady Lucan severely before she managed to escape and raise the alarm at a nearby pub. Lucan drives to a friend's house in Sussex in a borrowed Ford Corsair, which is later found abandoned in Newhaven. Friends receive letters in which he claims to have interrupted a fight during "a traumatic night of unbelievable coincidence" and says "the circumstantial evidence against me is strong". Police mount a search but find no further trace of him 
   
   June 1975 Lucan is named as Ms Rivett's killer at the inquest into her death. Lady Lucan identifies him as her attacker 
   
   1999 His family is granted probate over Lord Lucan's estate, but no death certificate is issued and Lucan's son Lord Bingham is refused permission to take his father's seat in the House of Lords 
   
   2014 The Presumption of Death Act enables Lord Bingham to apply to have Lucan declared dead so he can inherit the family title.
target: – A decades-old murder mystery has finally come to some sort of an end. Following a judge's Wednesday ruling, a death certificate has been issued for Lord Lucan, who the New York Times recounts as "a dashing British aristocrat" last seen on Nov. 7, 1974—the day that his children's nanny was found dead, allegedly by his hand. The BBC recalls the crime: Sandra Rivett was beaten to death in the family's London home and her body left in the basement; Lord Lucan's estranged wife was also attacked but got away, fleeing to a neighboring pub and yelling "He’s in the house! He’s murdered the nanny!" per the Times. Lady Lucan named her then 39-year-old husband as the attacker, saying he had thought she was Rivett, reports USA Today. A June 1975 inquest named him as Rivett's murderer, except the man born Richard John Bingham was never officially seen again after that night; a car he had borrowed from a friend was later found, blood-stained and abandoned. The sightings and theories kept flowing, though: in Melbourne, Australia, and France within the first year; employed as a waiter in San Francisco; backpacking on Mount Etna; dying in Goa in 1996. Just last Saturday came a story from an old gambling friend, who says he was told that the lord shot himself and had his body fed to a tiger. Lucan was declared dead in 1996, but the rub was that son George Bingham was unable to take on his title, preventing him from assuming his father's seat in the House of Lords. The death certificate now allows for that.