All language subtitles for The.Murder.of.Sandra.Rivett.2024.1080p.WEB.h264-GP-M-Eng.1.en

[dramatic music begins]

[dramatic music continues]

- [Reporter #1]
Of Lucan himself,

nothing has been seen since
his children's nanny was found

battered to death
here in the basement

of the family home in Belgravia.

Exhaustive police searches

of the South Coast
produced no clue.

- [Reporter #2] A massive
manhunt is underway

for the location
of John Bingham,

Seventh Earl of Lucan
who has disappeared

and is suspected of murder.

Anyone with information is
urged to contact police.

[dramatic music continues]

Bludgeoned to death at
46 Lower Belgrave Street.

The Lucan family's
29-year-old nanny.

- She is the primary victim and
yet we don't talk about her.

What we are really
interested in, say the press,

is the glamorous story of
Lord Lucan and Veronica Lucan,

and that is immensely tragic.

- The murder that saw her
lose her life has been defined

in terms that don't
even namecheck her.

She's referred to
retrospectively in the press

as Little Miss Nobody.

Well everybody is a somebody.

- And she was always
well turned out,

very quiet girl just like
the rest of us really.

Very sad 'cause you
don't want someone

you went to school with
to be murdered, do you?

It's just in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

- I feel guilty even now.

I feel guilty because
of a young baby going

to grow without his mommy.

- The victim in this
case did have a name.

That name was Sandra Rivett.

[dramatic music fades]

- The Lucan case.

I can't remember a time
when I didn't know about it.

It's something that so many
people have grown up with

just in the collective
consciousness somehow.

People used to tell jokes.

It's almost like
he was a character

rather than a person.

I probably came across his
name more commonly like

that than I did for
what he'd actually done.

- I joined the police in 1981

and he was the suspect in
a murder investigation.

There would be times when
I can remember friends

and we were joking
about something

and I said, "Maybe Lord Lucan's
gonna appear in a minute."

- It has so many of the elements
that make murder so very,

very interesting and the
fact that it happened in

that incongruous setting of

that beautiful tall
white House in Belgravia

and it's an unsolved mystery
because Lord Lucan disappeared.

So it's one of
the great stories.

- I've heard a lot of
stories about Lord Lucan,

but I know very, very
little about Veronica Lucan

and I didn't know Sandra
Rivett's name until I came

to do this project, which
is alarming, isn't it?

- This period of the 10 weeks
when Sandra Rivett was nanny

to the Lucan children
is an unknown really.

I believe she had a very good

relationship with the children.

There is no reason to disbelieve
that she was happy there.

She brought a cat to the
house as well actually.

So that was quite a sweet sort

of domestic thing
to do if you like.

And it does seem
like it was happy,

it does seem like it
worked for all parties.

[gentle music]

- She always wanted to
go back to Australia.

She talked about
it a lot actually.

She'd spent a lot of
her childhood there

and she just missed it terribly
and she wanted to go back.

She missed the weather,
she missed the life.

[dramatic music]

My name's Mary Mackenzie

and I went to school with
Sandra when I lived in Caterham

my friends rang me up

and told me that Sandra
had been murdered.

Well I was shocked, hard
to believe really and sad

'cause she's got two boys.

Sad for her children.

They're more interested
in him, weren't they?

Than they were her.

They seem to just put her as

an afterthought
really I thought.

- [Reporter #2] The family's
nanny killed in a murder

most horrid.

But the question on
everyone's lips is

where is Lord Lucan?

Did he do it?

If not, why has he disappeared

and where could he be?

- There's an article in which
it says it was an ugly real

life performance of
upstairs, downstairs.

And they then say,

and she was firmly kept
in her place downstairs

where she was slaughtered.

[dramatic music continues]

So it is leaning into
the class narrative.

I mean by what parameters
are individuals judged.

The Lucans were somebody

and in relation to them,
Sandra, she was erased.

She was erased.

[peaceful music]

- Lord Lucan had a
certain status in life

and it was that status

that protected him really.

And we might think that
things have changed,

but if we look
through history now,

we've got our cultural
royalty now rather

than our actual aristocracy.

People like Oscar Pistorius
who are in these elevated

and privileged positions
and they killed partners.

And yet in those cases,
even given what we know now,

we still focused
on their narrative

using their charisma to excuse

and justify what
they might have done.

So things haven't
changed that much.

[peaceful music]

- I got a call from
a junior officer,

like many officers in London

that night would've
heard the gossip.

I think I'm right in saying
I was probably the youngest

reporter on the staff
of the Evening Standard.

I'd only just taken
over on the crime desk.

It was a very different
time in the 70s.

The police and the press,
particularly in London,

were very much in
each other's pockets.

There was also quite
a lot of money passed

and changed hands between
reporters and police officers.

In return for a good story,
a return for a good tip.

As a young crime reporter,
I asked a colleague,

"How do you get a policeman

"to accept money in
return for a story?"

And I was told, "Well any copper
in Britain will be happily

"accept a bottle of scotch."

And after a while you
say, I found this new way

of putting a bottle of scotch
in a brown paper envelope.

It's called cash.

And I found that little
method of recruiting contacts

to be quite powerful

and in fact that was one
of the ways I heard about

that night was someone
that I had recently treated

to a paper envelope drink.

Looking back on
it, it was wrong,

it was corrupt and I probably
shouldn't be talking about it,

but it happened in every
Fleet Street newspaper

and in every police station.

[bell tolls]
[dramatic music]

- In terms of notifying
police of the murder,

it was actually the landlord
of the Plumber's Arms.

It was quite quiet that
evening when Lady Lucan came

through the door covered
in blood being hysterical

and almost fainting
in front of them.

It would've been
a difficult scene.

You know some people may have
thought, is this a windup?

She initially said her
nanny had been killed.

She said she'd been
attacked by her husband.

At that point the
publican decided the
best thing they could

do was to try and calm
her as best they could

and inform the police.

- I had a very good
contact with Roy Ranson,

the senior
investigating officer,

and I met him there
that night at the scene.

It was already quite chaotic.

There was one or two
policemen on the door.

The forensic scientist
I think had arrived.

There was an ambulance,

there was people
looking out windows at

what on earth was going
on in the road outside.

It was a very posh part of
Belgravia and a very posh road.

You didn't expect to
see something like that.

As I was about to join
some of my other colleagues

and photographers moving away
down the street a little way,

I literally got
the wink from Roy.

I slipped across to him and
talked to him on that doorstep

and he said there was a body,
that it wasn't Lady Lucan,

that Lady Lucan
and had been hurt

and that he was really
interested in finding out

where Lord Lucan was.

[bell tolls]
[dramatic music]

- When you read the account
provided by Roy Ranson

and others, it was
obviously a lot

of officers had
entered the premises,

which would not happen now,

the scene would have been
contained very quickly,

but back in 1974 it was a
different time, a different era

and things weren't
necessarily dealt with

as you would've wanted
them to at the time.

- Roy Ranson hadn't had any
chance to talk to Lady Lucan.

As we were talking, we were
gravitating together almost

to the top of the stairs

and I got one look
down into the basement.

It had police lights down there.

There were police officers who
were walking through the pool

of blood and tramping
it up the stairs

and it was just general mayhem.

In the bottom of the stairs
on the floor was the sack

and Sandra Rivett's
body was in that sack

and she was doubled up.

She'd been put in
head and feet first.

It was a very large
American canvas mail sack,

and as far as I know, they
have never been able to find

where that sack came from
and why Lucan had it.

We know why he took
it to the house.

It was to get rid of the body.

So the only thing you could see

of Sandra was very undignified.

She had tights and white
pants on and that was it.

- The officers recovered
a length of lead piping

and it had been
wrapped with tape.

It was likely that that
was the item that was used

to attack not only Sandra
Rivett but also Lady Lucan.

We know that Lady
Lucan's hair fibres were

found on that item.

One of the things to bear
in mind is in this day

and age, if you had a a
weapon like that recovered,

there would probably be
that much more information

that could be gleaned that
you were more than likely

to get DNA off of the weapon.

But back then what they
would mainly be looking

for will be the fibres,
blood and whether

or not there were any
traces of fingerprints.

[dramatic music]

Roy Ranson was the chief
superintendent at the time.

I tried to put
myself in his shoes

and think, so what
would I do next?

Well, we know that some
of his staff were going

to be doing the initial
work at the scene in terms

of exhibits, forensication,
house to house inquiries.

He would've been thinking,
how am I going to identify

how many suspects
were involved in it?

- The person who attacked
her attacked her brutally

and with an extreme
amount of force,

the force was from
a blunt weapon

and all of it was
directed towards her head

and face, which means
that they were determined

to do the most damage possible.

This was a rage-fueled attack

and it wasn't just one
blow or a couple of blows.

This was a lot of
blows to Sandra's head.

- The number one question

that next morning
would've been, who died?

Who was murdered?

And where's Lord Lucan?

I can remember that being a
very fierce topic of debate

where he could possibly be,
where he might be hiding.

Had he done it?

Sandra's identity and details

such as they were would've
come out the next day.

- The police knowledge
of the victim in terms

of victimology was
that she was the nanny

to the three children.

She had only been
working at that address

for about three months.

She only started in August.

It would've become apparent
that the relationship

between Lady Lucan and
Sandra Rivett was healthy.

It was good.

- Sandra Rivett was almost
certainly murdered in error.

The intended victim
had been Lady Lucan.

This appalling set
of circumstances

whereby Sandra, who should
have been on her night off,

descended into the dark
basement of this tall house

to make some tea

and in the dark was
mistaken for Veronica Lucan.

- I think it's quite
quickly forgotten

that while Sandra is the
victim of this piece,

she's the young woman
who lost her life,

inexplicably and horribly.

There is another victim
and that's Veronica.

[sombre music]

- I have some sympathy
with Lady Lucan

because I think she did have
mentally challenging issues.

Lord Lucan wasn't a particularly
caring husband to her

and I don't think that

after they got married he
even liked her for long,

from everything that I've heard.

- Towards the end of 1972,
Veronica turns to one

of Lord Lucan's relatives

and describes how
she's been feeling

and she says she
could no longer cope.

She describes how alone
and unhappy she felt.

She spoke of her
husband's mental cruelty

and she hinted at sexual
and physical abuse.

- We have to bear in mind

that the accidental player in
this narrative is Veronica.

She's the person who survived

and who later gave
her testimony, wrote
a book, et cetera.

So we have to treat what
she says with caution,

but certainly she is
very clear about aspects

of their marriage that are
shocking to read about.

You know, the cane that was
in his cupboard that he used

to beat sense into her,

beating out the nonsense
before they had intercourse.

This happened more than once.

- There were
accusations of abuse

and control

and stalking, which
are the three classic,

classic risk-markers that
we would expect to see

and I don't think I was
surprised to see them,

but I was surprised
that they were

actually pretty well known,

but nobody seemed to think they
were particularly relevant.

[sombre music continues]

- Lord Lucan and
starts telling people

that Veronica's behaving
oddly, suggesting

that she's mad, making out
that she's harmed herself

by throwing herself
down the stairs.

He says all kinds of
things that starts

to build a very negative picture
of her with other people.

His motives for doing
that feel very devaluing.

It's like, "I've had enough
of this particular person

"and I want them
gone out of my life

"and I will tell whatever story
I need to get what I want."

- The press knew within a day

or two that some
of the basic story

that Lord Lucan wasn't
living at the family home,

that there had
been disagreements

about the custody
of the children.

There were several
custody battles

and Roy showed me the details
of the one that really sank

Lord Lucan in the end.

Veronica reveals that Lord
Lucan had made her dress

in a rubber exercise
suit so that she was hot

and sweaty when they
went to bed together.

He had no clue that
she'd ever used

that information in public.

So when Lord Lucan is sitting
there in the custody hearing

and he has his aged mother,
Caitlin, the Doja Countess

of Lucan at his side

and suddenly out of the blue
Veronica starts revealing

the secrets of their bedroom
sex games and his kinkiness.

He had been so embarrassed
that he hadn't been able

to look at or talk to his
mother for weeks afterwards.

He didn't expect that
to ever come out.

I personally think

that was the moment when Lord
Lucan decided she had to die.

- It's in the official
record that he,

I say manipulated
her in her words,

to go and get
psychiatric treatment.

He told her that
she was going crazy.

He told her that she needed
drugs to keep her stable.

- Veronica Lucan must
have been a lonely person

and Sandra must have filled
a hole in her emotional

and you know, social life.

So they probably
were getting on okay,

they were getting on well
enough for the children

to really like her.

They told their dad that
she was a very nice nanny

and that everything
seemed to be going fine.

[gentle piano music]

- Sandra Elanor Hensby was born

on the 16th of September, 1945.

Her parents were
Eunice and Albert

and she had three sisters,
two older, one younger.

According to her school
report, she was bright

but not academic.

She left school at age 14,
which was not that unusual then.

And then went out to work,
which is what women did

before they got married.

First she trained
to be a hairdresser,
but then she moved on

and became a secretary.

- Sandra lived in
the flats near me,

we were all teenagers
starting out on life

and enjoying meeting people

and looking forward
to, well, deciding

what you're gonna do
the rest of your life.

I took Sandra on one occasion

to a dance in the
barracks next door to us

where the army was.

It was always very nice, danced

and met all the people there.

I was 20 when I met my husband,

I was at a dance at the barracks

and he got me to pull
out the raffle tickets

and then he asked me out

and then we went out
together for a while

and then we decided to get
married and that was it.

- In 1963 when she was 17, 18,

Sandra had mental health issues

and she did spend a bit
of time in a hospital.

That was after a
very bad breakup,

which I suppose is possible.

You know girls are very
susceptible at that age,

but that seems to
have resolved itself.

But it was significant
in another way

in that she met a guy there
slightly older who was working

as a builder at the hospital

and they fell for each
other, young love,

and when she was discharged,

they carried on
seeing each other

and announced their engagement.

- Very soon after
Sandra becomes pregnant

and she wants to get
married to this guy

and he gets cold feet
and starts to withdraw

and tells her, "You know what,

"I'm not gonna go
ahead with this."

And this leaves
Sandra heartbroken

and on top of that, she's
also pregnant at a time

where single women pregnant,

unable to look for support,

would've left her
in a very isolated

and tricky position.

[sombre music]

[laughs]

- Contraceptive options.

Really the only way

of not getting pregnant
was to not have sex.

[sombre music]

- If girls had carried
anything like condoms

in the 60s, they would've
been classed as loose women.

It was a different world then
you had to be more aware.

- The contraceptive pill
is not legalised until 1961

and it's certainly not
available to anyone initially.

Wait for it, you
have to be married

and with one child to get
the contraceptive pill

in the early 1960s.

- Abortion wasn't
legal until 1967,

she was either gonna
become a single mother

or she would do what a
lot of young women did,

which was give the
baby up for adoption

and that is what
she prepared to do.

But then her parents stepped in

and said that they
would bring him up

and the baby believed

that Sandra was his older
sister, which was quite common.

So moving on three
years, we are in 1967,

Sandra was having a relationship
with a local estate agent

and he was married so it
didn't have a lot of future,

unluckily got pregnant again.

So she went down to her
older sister Theresa,

who lived in Portsmouth

and this time she didn't
really have a lot of choice

but to give the baby
up for adoption.

- That's quite
standard to move away

when you're pregnant,
you don't wanna be seen,

don't wanna bring the
family's name down

and she gives birth when
she's dating the man

who becomes her
husband, Roger Rivett.

The baby, they don't
keep, for whatever reason,

they decide they
can't manage the child

who is subsequently
given up for adoption.

- When I was
researching the book,

I found the adoption
letter for the baby.

I'm pleased to tell you we
have a baby son for you.

- [Tessa] He was born
on February the fourth

and weighs seven
pounds, eight ounces.

- His mother is a
single girl, age 21.

She already has one little boy

who at the moment is being
cared for by her parents

and she feels she
cannot possibly

bring the baby up
properly herself.

- The baby's father
is a man she's known

for quite a long time.

Unfortunately while his wife
had a period in hospital,

she visited his home on
a number of occasions

to help in the house.

Intercourse occurred
and she became pregnant.

- She did not want to
break his marriage,

so came away from the area.

God, that tells a
tale, doesn't it?

[sombre music continues]

I think it's pretty sad, really.

She was very attractive

and it sounds like she was quite
susceptible and she was 21.

It's not very old and it sounds
like the bloke might have

thought his lucky day had come

when his wife was in hospital.

- Sandra had very few
life choices when it came

to how she lived her life.

But at the same
time, I get the sense

that Sandra was a very carefree,

energetic kind of human being.

So she was almost ahead
of her time in the way

that she was living.

- Her sister Teresa
subsequently says,

"My sister said
she loved children

:but she wasn't cut
out to have them."

Theresa is trying

to justify why her sister didn't
bring up her own children,

but she doesn't need to

because we know in
that decade, in the 60s

and the 70s, the
majority of girls

who had children out of
wedlock could not keep them.

We were the highest year

for adoption rates in
Britain in the 60s.

1968,

24,000 babies adopted.

That is how many girls
were trying their luck.

Didn't know how to say no, fell
the wrong side of the gamble

and had a baby that
was illegitimate.

[babies crying]

- She married Roger
Rivett when she was 22.

They got married in a
registry office in Croydon.

He was away at sea
a lot of the time.

Apparently he got
suspicious when she used

to write regularly and then
the letters became a bit

less frequent.

- He's in the Navy.

I mean she's quite lonely
I think when he's away,

but she's always working.

- In 1969, Roger
came back to England.

I think the marriage
probably got back on track.

Sandra was actually
working at an orphanage.

She started as a cleaner,

but I think she
got more involved

with working with the children.

But then we go to 1973

and Roger went
back to sea again.

We had that pattern of letters
becoming less frequent.

And then the final,
the sort of climax

came in May of 1974.

They had a huge row and he left.

That was the end.

- We know that when the
marriage breaks down,

she moves up to London.

[sombre music continues]

- She seemed to experience
a new lease of life

after separating from
Roger, she was going out,

she was engaging with friends,
she was having a good time

and she puts her name
down for domestic service.

She has one job that's
fairly short-lived

and then her next job
is with the Lucans.

[suspenseful music]

- That was sort of paralleled
almost by the dislocation

and breakdown of
Veronica's marriage

and I think that's one of
the reasons why the girls,

the women hit it off.

And actually Veronica says
herself, these were happy times.

They laughed a lot together.

- She was employed to be a
nanny to the three children

of the Lucan marriage,
Francis, George and Camilla.

The wage was 25 pounds a week,

which even in modern
money isn't very much,

but of course she
had accommodation.

She was living in a
house in Belgravia,

a really very lovely house.

She hadn't even unpacked all
her things when she died.

[tense music]

- Veronica was a fairly
challenging employer,

but nonetheless Sandra
knows how to please people,

it's one of the things that
makes Sandra so appealing,

so attractive.

- She was one of a long
procession of nannies.

There was one that
only lasted four days.

There was one that
lasted a bit longer.

There were 6, 7, 8, I
don't know, it's not clear.

But anyway, she arrived

and it seems to
have been a success.

- Both Sandra

and Veronica in their own lives
had psychological struggles.

They'd had real challenges
and difficulties

and they were trying

to find their way
in their own lives

and this is the point at
which they come together under

Veronica's roof and they
make sense to one another.

- What's interesting is noting

how Sandra checked in
on Veronica when she

wasn't working the weekends.

She picked up on her
employer's vulnerability

and Veronica felt able to share

that vulnerability with Sandra.

There was a kinship.

There clearly was a
feeling of mutual sympathy.

They understood each
other's circumstances.

[bright music]

- Veronica Duncan as she was,

was born in 1937.

She had a younger
sister, Christina

and her father was
an army officer

who was killed when
she was quite young.

He was killed in a car crash,
but her mother married again

and they spent some of their
childhood in South Africa.

- Her and her sister Christina
are sent to boarding school

and I think this is
incredibly difficult

for the very young Veronica.

Her and her sister are bullied
for a number of reasons,

which makes life for Veronica
incredibly difficult.

And I think her mother
struggles with what to do,

sends Veronica to a psychiatrist

who labels her, a troubled child

and I think that's where
some of her issues begin.

- The family left
South Africa in 1949.

They came back and
they lived quite near

where Sandra was
born in Basingstoke.

The stepfather ran a pub
called the Wheatsheaf.

I can remember one of
the policemen talking

to me about Veronica

and he said, she always said,

"I am a Countess of the realm."

And he said she
grew up in a pub,

but they were the daughters

of an army officer
and what have you.

She was very status aware,
Veronica, no question.

- Veronica got
herself up to London.

She tried her hand
at various jobs.

She wasn't a sticker.

She left art college.

She couldn't really
bear the idea

of doing four years on a course.

Now that again
doesn't surprise me.

Nobody had long-term
really invested in her

or spent time with her.

She'd never lived
or been settled in

one place for that long.

- By now, Veronica is 25

and very hard for
us to understand.

But that was then
getting to the point

of why aren't you married?

You know the shelf,
the dreaded shelf,

I suppose the shelf
was when you were 30,

but 25 is, you know,
the shelf is visible.

One of the things
that was said was

that Veronica had a complex
about being very, very small.

She was, she was tiny.

She was like a
China doll almost.

And she thought that being small
was a sign of bad breeding.

- Veronica absolutely
felt single.

She tells us later in
her memoir, she admits,

she says herself, "I cannot
stress the importance

"of getting married for
my generation of women."

Of course, a situation
for her, compounded

by the fact her younger sister,

she had a successful marriage
into the Shand Kydd dynasty

and all the trappings of wealth

and prestige that came with it.

Poor old Veronica
wasn't quite so lucky.

- Christina married
Bill Shand Kydd

who was very
connected, connections

to the late Princess
of Wales, Diana.

A rich man,

but that put Veronica
in an orbit if you like,

because she could visit
Bill and Christina

and there would've
been Bill's friends.

[tense music]

One of Bill Shand
Kydd's friends was

the then John Bingham who
would become Lord Lucan.

John Bingham was beyond
her wildest dreams.

She would've thought
he was a god.

He was regarded as
extremely good looking.

I mean, he was asked to
test for films and so on.

He was a catch, no question.

And possibly she may have
thought a better catch

than Bill Shand Kydd, which I
think she might have enjoyed.

- Lucan was considered
as a possible James Bond.

I mean, he was a handsome
man, he was very sporty.

He raced powerboats and
he was really good at it.

When you look at it, if I was
producing a James Bond movie

and I needed a character,

then a powerboat racing,
handsome, bobsleigh skiing,

gambling aristocrat is
a pretty good choice.

He would've been
a good James Bond.

- It always reminds
me a little bit

of when Diana met Prince
Charles, you know,

and they seemed to
understand each other

and he may have thought
this sweet young girl will

be a nice docile wife.

And she seemed to understand him

and Lucan said to her,
you know, "I'm a gambler.

I'm gonna, this is
my way of life."

And she said to him,
"Oh no, that's fine.

"That doesn't matter at all."

[gentle piano music]

- Lord Lucan operated
in a clandestine world,

the Clermont Club, this
is a gambling fraternity.

They're operating without
the standard norms of society

and they are very
much a boys club.

In an old school world
where class, status, wealth

and title really
meant something,

[gentle piano music continues]

- By the time that they are
married, it becomes clear

that Lord Lucan's friends
don't really think that much

of Veronica.

She's not one of their set.

And I think this message
is reinforced when she goes

to the Clermont Club
where she is made

to sit on the widow's bench

and he is at the
centre gambling,

doing whatever he wants
to do as the man's man.

[dramatic music]

- Lord Lucan was living in
a quite a misogynistic time

in history.

He certainly thought he
was superior to women.

He recognised that
Veronica was actually

quite an intelligent,
witty, quick woman,

and he said to her,

there can only be one
captain of the ship.

That's like,
"Whatever I say goes,

" it doesn't matter if
you think you know better

"or even if you
actually do know better.

"I'm the captain of this ship."

He started to
undermine Veronica,

and one of the ways
that he started

to undermine Veronica was to
question her mental health,

her emotional stability.

And this was something
that got a lot worse

and worse over time.

- The Lucans had three children.

Francis was born
in 1964, George,

so the heir, was born in 1967

and Camilla was born in 1970

and there were questions
of postnatal depression.

- Veronica was
known to rock back

and forth from a very early age,

and she was seen doing
this in the Clermont Club,

and I think that
might have been a way

of self-soothing whatever
she was experiencing,

and I think it's just
one of those behaviours

that she found helpful without
consciously being aware that

that's what she was doing.

It was something almost
very primal to her.

- There were two
incidents in 1972.

One was that the Lucans
were at the Clermont Club

and Veronica threw a glass
of wine in a woman's face,

which was like a thunderbolt.

People had been sort of more

and more saying, "Oh,
she's a nightmare."

Which you can
interpret as you wish,

but the fact is she
did throw a glass

of wine in someone's face.

You might be sympathetic to
her for doing it, but she did.

And then the second thing was
that she sacked this nanny,

the long-term nanny,

and that seems to have been
the last straw for Lucan.

[sombre music]

- The family was
clearly in crisis.

He moves out of
the marital home.

Clermont Club is sold, his
gambling's out of control.

He's having to spend a lot
of money claiming custody or

otherwise of his children.

Building up to the
main custody battle.

She has to prove that she's
mentally capable of looking

after those children, of
being the primary parent.

So she checks herself into
the priory and is assessed.

- She had a guy
from the priory come

and say that she was
completely cured.

As long as she kept
taking the right drugs,

she was completely cured.

She won the hearing and
all the things she'd said

about Lucan which were meant
to be kept under wraps,

all came out.

You know all these things
about his sexual deviancy

and his general violence,

general ghastliness,
all this came out.

[sombre music continues]

- Veronica is told she has to
have a nanny to help her look

after the children full time.

And this is hugely problematic.

- Sandra, she'd had
quite a few predecessors

over the previous year or so.

- My name is Pierrete Goletto.

I am French by birth

and Italian by both my parents.

I live with the Lucan
family for a long time

of I think over a year,

and I look after the
three little children.

[gentle piano music]

In 1974, I saw an advert of

an agency looking for nannies.

I was told that the nanny
before me lasted for a few days.

I have to go to a
lawyer to be accepted.

The lawyer, and I
remember his question,

"Will you stay if they have
trouble in the family?"

I say, "I am here to
protect the children,

"to take them away from it.

"That's all."

And then he said to me,

"Right, you got the job.
You can start. Great."

I really loved the children.

Really, really.

Camilla was about
two and a half.

George was about five.

Francis was the biggest one.

She was about seven.

We get up in the morning,

I bring the food up in the
nursery, we eat up there.

We have a lot of fun.

We read the story,
get ready, take

Francisca to the school,
George would stay with me,

then I cook the supper.

This was seven days a week,
but on Sunday it was fun

because we could go to the park.

[tense music]

- This isn't a standard nannying
situation, bearing in mind

that it's not normal
to be fighting the
custody of children.

Divorce isn't commonplace
in the early 1970s,

so the situation is unusual.

It's highly charged

and I would think challenging,
emotionally challenging.

- I remember clearly my first
meeting with Lady Lucan,

with Veronica.

I was lying on the floor,
playing with the children.

She said to me, "Is this
the way you do in France?"

I said, "This this the
way the children like it."

And she just walk away.

The children didn't see their
mother sometime for weeks,

and when I was seeing her
dancing around the table

with a bottle of vodka,

I knew it wasn't the
time to talk to her.

- What one did
here repeatedly was

that Lucan was a
very hands-on father,

unusually so for, you
might say, the time,

the class, whatever,

he was a very
affectionate father.

I remember speaking to a
nanny of the children of one

of his friends and she
said he was the only one

who came into the nursery.

[gentle music]

- He was living down the road.

I think it was Elizabeth
Street if I remember rightly,

because sometime I was in
the dining room downstairs

studying when he was
coming at two o'clock,

three o'clock in the afternoon

before I go to pick
up the children.

I could hear them arguing,
arguing about money,

arguing about gambling,
arguing about wasting money,

arguing about the children.

"I am going to prevent
you to see George."

And that was the biggest
threat Lord Lucan can have

because one thing is sure,
he love his children.

Just outside Belgrave Street
is a little kind of park

and I was going there
and I know he was passing

and taking photos
of the children.

- He did two things
with the nannies.

He had them followed

and he also did his best to
tape record their conversations.

So he had a private
investigation company

that was working for him.

At times, they had two
different operatives

who would follow the
nannies when the children

left the house and
follow Lady Lucan.

It was a concerted bit of
espionage that was going on.

- The most startling
behaviour for me

that I saw in this case was
the stalking that happened

after they had separated

and it probably wouldn't have
been called stalking back in

the 70s, but what he was
doing was actually stalking.

He was parking up
outside Veronica's house

and he would sit there
for hour upon hour

staring at the house.

One of the nannies
reported that there were 22

heavy breathing phone calls
to the house in just one hour,

leaving either silent
messages or heavy breathing.

[tense music]

Now that is to
frighten somebody.

This man is actually wanting

to dominate Veronica's life.

"I'm still here. I'm
not going anywhere."

- He would tape a
call to Veronica

and he would start off
talking reasonably to her,

and then he would slowly provoke
her into losing her temper

on the telephone and starting
to rant and rave at him.

And only when she was ranting

and raving, he would then turn
on his tape recorder when he

realised that nothing was gonna
work to get those kids back

other than removing
Veronica from the scene,

he abandoned all the sort
of the nanny shenanigans,

if you like, and just
began concentrating on

how do you kill your wife
and get away with it.

[suspenseful music]

- I think one marry
the other one for money

and one marry the
other one for a title.

Veronica was very, very attached
of her title of the lady.

I don't think he has
any sign of violence.

Lot of sadness, lot of
hunger yes, but violence.

This wasn't a term
that we used for him.

No.

And one thing is sure,

when he was telling hello to
me, he was not telling hello,

like if I was a dog,
he was looking at me.

He was looking and
saying, good afternoon.

Thank you for looking
after the children.

- Any behavioural issues
that Veronica displayed.

The police theory was that
they were Lucan's fault.

They said that Lord Lucan had
been trying to send her mad

or convince her
that she was mad.

She said to them, "He used to
take me off to psychiatrists."

There was pretty strong evidence

that the children
shouldn't be with her.

He had concerns about
her as early as 1967

and he didn't even leave
the marriage until 1973.

So that means he was
playing a very long game,

which frankly he
wasn't capable of.

And it's ridiculous.

He just wasn't that imaginative.

He just wasn't.

- There are conflicting
descriptions of what Lord Lucan

was like as a person.

Some people describe
him as very charming

and very charismatic
and friendly and nice.

Other people say that that
mask slipped quite a lot.

One of the things that we know
about controlling people is

that they are very,
very manipulative.

So they will learn as
they go through life.

What works, what gives
me the most control?

Most of this charm would've
been used on people

who could be useful to him.

- His motivations to get rid

of Veronica were
very, very strong.

Veronica was, in his
eyes, ruining his life.

And it wasn't only that she
had won custody of the children

in the most embarrassing
way possible for him.

It was also that she was
living in the Lucan Trust's

Belgravia mansion, while Lucan
was living around the corner

in a little two bed flat

and she was spending money at
Harrod's like it was water.

No court was going to let
him sell their family home

so he couldn't access
any of the money

that he had locked up there.

He was like many aristocrats.

He was asset rich and cash poor.

Divorcing her, which he almost
certainly would've wanted

to do, would possibly
have made the situation

even worse for him.

- I think it was about the
end of September, I was told

by the lady from the Au Pair
agency I wasn't needed anymore

and they needed somebody

English to replace me.

I have to go.

And then I did my,
they were at school.

I put my thing and I went.

- Sandra was with an
agency in Belgravia

and her next job was at
46 Lower Belgrave Street.

- I know almost
nothing about Sandra.

I met Sandra once because
I forgot some books

and I rung up to
come to get them

and she opened the door.

She was not very big.

She looked like a pleasant lady.

I don't think she
say a word to me.

She hold the book and I
say, "Thank you very much."

She closed the
door. Nothing else.

No contact.

I would've loved to ask
how the children, no,

they were at school, the babies.

[gentle piano music]

- It was very hard to get a
nanny, a good nanny in London

for a rate that wasn't
too over the top

because we know Lucan had
money issues and therefore

you get this extraordinary
sort of revolving door

of carers and au pairs

and nannies that arrive
in the family house,

some of whom leave, some
of whom aren't appropriate,

some of whom don't
cut the mustard,

some of whom Veronica
doesn't get on with,

some of whom are
only temporary anyway

until the agency can
get the right nanny.

We know Francis, the older
girl didn't really get on

with the nannies and
can you blame her?

She had a different one
every week virtually.

[soft music]

- I became a penthouse
pet and a Bunny Girls,

and I love it.

I love the money I was making.

It was just glamorous.

I cannot remember
the exact date,

but I know that I left weeks

before everything happened.

My boss said to me, "Have
you read the last article?"

And I said, "No."

He said, "You worked with
Lord Lucan, didn't you?"

And he gave me the
paper and I read it.

And I just walk out and
I walk in the street

and I said, "It
could have been me."

And then I
straightaway said, "No,

"that would not have
happened if I did stay."

And from this minute,
the guilt came.

First of all, I thought it
was Veronica was killed,

and that really shocked me.

Then when I saw it was a
mother of a young baby,

a young child, I felt guilty.

And this guilt is
still here now,

50 years on this guilt is here.

It's all right.

I have to cope, I live with it.

[music box plays]

- I mean, when you think
of the chain of events

and how they're
affecting people's lives,

the idea that a judge
saying there has

to be a nanny in
situ all the time,

and Sandra happily, innocently

thinking, oh, what a great job.

It's awful really.

- When the police ask me
question, I said to them,

"I feel guilty.

"No way they would
ever murdered me."

I never heard from
the children again.

My guilt was so
great at the time.

I felt that the children could
have been killed as well.

[gentle piano music]

- Sandra appeared happy
at her place of work,

and she told her mother that.

She'd ring her
mother every evening.

She would ring her boyfriend
and say how happy she was.

They probably felt very secure

and safe within the environment
at that address at the time.

Unfortunately, that was to
then to become a significant

and horrendous murder scene.

Less than half an hour after
they were watching a television

and she'd gone downstairs,
Sandra would've been killed.

- On the night it
happened with Lady Lucan

taken off to hospital,
desperately injured.

She had massive
wounds to her scalp.

Sandra Rivett dead
in the basement.

The children were completely
alone in the house

with this horrible scene
happening downstairs.

Lucan himself tried to
get some help for them.

He telephoned his mother

and said, could you
go to the house?

I believe that the only
person in the room with

the Dowager Countess of
Lucan was a police woman.

The police woman realised
Lucan was on the phone

and then just did nothing,
just sat there and listened.

- Lord Lucans mother
asked Lord Lucan whether

or not he wanted to
speak to the officer.

And his response was, "No,
tell the officer I will speak

"to her tomorrow."

And for me, that was where part

of the investigation was
going to be hindered.

You can't have your possible
suspect on the opposite end

of the phone who says,
"I'll ring you tomorrow."

Your natural instinct would
be, "Give me that phone.

"Hello, mate, you need
to wind your neck in

"and we need to talk."

That's just policing.

I don't think of any police
officer who would go,

"Yeah, I agree with that."

I don't understand why the
officer didn't do it, I'm sorry.

- I think the details
of how Sandra died

and the details of how
Lady Lucan was hurt

didn't really come out
in any great detail

until the inquest
into Sandra's death,

which was some
considerable time later.

The whole attention
of the police

and the press was supposed

to be the worldwide
hunt for Lord Lucan.

- I wish to interview him

and I'd like to interview
him as soon as possible.

And if any person is helping him

or assisting him,
we'd like them to

or have any knowledge
of his whereabouts.

We'd like them to let us know.

- After Lady Lucan ran off

to the pub screaming
and shouting,

and Lucan realised that
he had to get away.

He into his car, the car
that he had hoped to carry,

Lady Lucan's body away
in, and he fled the scene.

And the only indication of

what he did then comes from
the late Susan Maxwell Scott,

who days later reported

that he had turned
up at her house on

the night of the killing.

- He looked a bit dishevelled,

may have had a bit
of blood on him.

He asked if he could
get a pen and paper,

and he wanted to write
a couple of letters.

He then left.

- One of the letters,
went to Bill Shand Kydd,

his brother-in-law.

Bill was a very, very
close friend of his.

- No, I obviously can't divulge
the contents of the letter.

All I can say is that
it confirmed the story,

which he had told his mother

that there had been an
intruder in the house.

Apart from that, I can't
divulge any of the contents.

- I think he used the
phrase, it's been a night

of unbelievable coincidences.

And he set the scene
for what is his version,

his alibi for what
happened that night,

or rather his defence for
what happened that night.

- And he saw the intruder?
- Yes.

He disturbed the intruder.

- What sort of a man was he?

- Generous man. A
very gentle man.

Very much a family man.

He's really devoted
to his children.

They are the most important
thing in his life.

- When I interrupted the
fight at Lower Belgrave Street

and the man left, Veronica
accused me of having hired him,

I took her upstairs and
sent Francis up to bed

and tried to clean her up.

She laid Doggo for a bit,

and when I was in the
bathroom, left the house.

The circumstantial evidence
against me is strong in

that V will say it
was all my doing.

I will also lie Doggo for a bit,

but I'm also concerned
for the children.

If you can manage it, I
want them to live with you.

- To use the term, the
circumstantial evidence against

me is strong.

It doesn't sit right with me.

It doesn't feel like the thing
a normal person would say.

- He said to Bill Shand Kydd
that he was going to run away

and lie doggo for a while.

That phrase has
haunted me for 50 years

because lying doggo for a
while is not I'm gonna go

and kill myself.

It's I'm gonna go

and hide under the bed clothes
until somebody finds me.

And it's just, he's
been hiding very well

for five decades.

- On the 9th of November,
police had received information

that the Ford Corsair, that
Michael Stoop had loaned

to Lord Lucan had been
found in Newhaven.

The individuals who came across
the vehicle said it had been

parked between five
and 8:00 AM that day.

The vehicle was subsequently
found by the officers locked,

which would imply
that whoever was in it

may have intended to
come back to the vehicle.

- The natural
suggestion would be

that he then got on the
Newhaven to Dieppe Ferry

and escaped to France.

But the reality is

that the police questioned
just every passenger they could

find who had made that crossing
on the day after the murder.

And they could find nobody
among the passengers

or crew who saw

or remembered a six foot
tall former guards officer

with a very big bushy moustache

and talking in a very
plummy, aristocratic accent.

He wasn't somebody you
could mistake in a crowd.

I think the police believed

that the car was left at
Newhaven as a red herring.

Nobody would know apart
from Susan Maxwell Scott.

And and her evidence was
just never forthcoming.

- I would think that the
probability is that he is alive,

but I have no knowledge,
no foundation for that.

It's just a feeling.
I think he's alive.

- I don't think there's
anybody, certainly in London

that didn't know
about this case.

It would've been front page,
back page news, everything.

But that sometimes
can work against you

because you're gonna get lots

of sightings coming
from all over the world.

They were coming from Australia,

they were coming from
Europe, certainly in the UK.

So that would've made
it even more difficult.

- In the days and
weeks after the murder,

the media generally
were full of stories

of this worldwide hunt for
the missing Lord Lucan,

it was a great headline.

The truth of the matter
is that Roy Ranson,

the detective in
charge of the case,

never went on a worldwide hunt

because he had no evidence
of where Lucan might be.

- 14 years ago when I
was in the Met, I believe

that they would've identified
where Lord Lucan was

and he would've been
arrested within days

or even weeks at the maximum

because there's so much
stuff now that we have to do

that the moment you have
your phone in your pocket,

it's pinging away on

where you are from the moment
he left the scene from the

moment he ended up
out in Newhaven,

all that information
would be downloaded

and would have all that
information in a matter

of 72 hours max.

So Roy Ranson

and his team were
hamstrung by the lack

of technology

and all of those things

that an SIO now has
to bring to bear.

If you're lucky in
this day and age,

you could have solved
that within 72 hours.

And if you're not, maybe
in a couple of weeks.

[tense music]

- The most plausible
thing I think,

and supported by the
evidence, is that Lord Lucan

was absolutely enraged

that he had no
control over Veronica.

He wanted custody of
his children, basically.

He wanted to win
and he was losing.

He went through an
escalation period.

He started to fantasise
about how he was gonna win.

He was gonna win by killing her.

He planned to kill her.

He went round there
to execute the plan.

He killed the wrong woman.

A typical intimate partner
homicide that went wrong.

- I think the murder
was very premeditated.

There were a number
of indications that
it was premeditated.

The week before it happened,

he had custody of the children
for a weekend or an evening,

and he talked to them about
their new nanny, Sandra,

and they told him
all about Sandra

and what a nice girl she was.

So he said, "I suppose your
nanny has a boyfriend?"

And the oldest, Lucan girl
said, "She's got a boyfriend."

and giggled.

And I think said, "We
saw her kissing him."

and Lucan then said, "Does the
boyfriend take Sandra out?"

And the children said, "Oh yes,

"she goes out every
Thursday night

"because that's her day off."

It was the very next
Thursday night that Lucan

turned up in the house
with his intent to kill.

So it was certainly premeditated
to the point where he knew

that the nanny would
be out of the house

and Lady Lucan would be alone

and he was most likely to
be able to kill his wife.

- It was common knowledge

that Sandra normally had
the Thursday night off.

But on this
occasion, she decided

that she wanted to change it.

We know before the attack
she'd spoken to her boyfriend,

they talked about
meeting up the next day.

[dramatic music]

- The murder happened
on the evening

of the 7th of November, 1974.

As ever with this, there
are very few hard facts.

We don't even know
what time it happened

because there are
conflicting reports.

While Veronica,
two of her children

and Sandra were all upstairs
in the main bedroom,

Veronica's bedroom, they
were all on the bed together

watching the $6 million man.

And on the floor above was
Francis, the elder child

who was watching
top of the pops.

At some point between

25 to nine and five to nine,

Sandra Rivett went down into
the basement to make tea.

There was a light
bulb had been removed,

so she was in the dark.

She went down those stairs

and at the bottom of
the stairs was attacked.

[dramatic music crescendos]

- I think maybe after the
first two or three blows.

And she may have screamed.

He may have thought
this is not her,

but he could not
have stopped then.

He couldn't say, "Oh,
sorry, wrong person."

So he had to kill her.

- Sandra collapses in a
pool of blood and Lord Lucan

scoops up the body

and puts it into the big sack
that he's come prepared with.

Now, it is entirely possible

that he doesn't know
he's killed Sandra.

He thinks he's
killed Lady Lucan.

And so he goes off to
wash off the blood,

leaving the body in the sack.

All he can see of the body
is her rocked up skirt

and underwear, which could
well have been his wife's.

So he goes upstairs to

where there is a light in
the ground floor, cloak room,

and that's where he starts
to wash the blood off.

And it's at that point that
he hears a noise outside

and he throws open the
door, and there's his wife.

The woman who he
firmly believed at

that stage was downstairs
dead in a sack.

[water Trickling]
[tense music]

He's totally shocked by this.

And he attacks Lady
Lucan viciously.

I mean, he's got this
lead pipe in his hand

and he's still swinging
his pipe at her.

He hits her across the
head several times.

She wouldn't have had
the slightest chance

or knowledge of what
was happening to her.

- It is so hard to know
what was actually going

through his head at that point.

But what I would theorise
is that he sounded

blood hot angry.

And after that, there
might have been a moment

where he went, "Oh
God, what have I done?"

- Upstairs, he's in
a narrow corridor.

He's facing Lady Lucan.

And although he hits
her without enough force

to knock her out, she's a
wiry, feisty young woman.

And she's fighting for her life.

She scratches him, they're
wrestling together.

And in the end, she reaches down

and she grabs hold of his
testicles and squeezes

and twists as hard as she can.

And Lucan collapses
to the floor with her.

They slide down
the walls together.

And Lady Lucan is so clever.

She says, "What are
you doing, John?

"What on earth are you doing?"

And he mumbles incoherently.

And she says, "Where's Sandra?

"Where's my nanny?"

And he says, "I think I've
killed, I've killed your nanny."

- They went upstairs
to the bedroom

and he rang out a towel
to clean her up a bit.

We know he was there because
Francis, his daughter, saw him.

But when he was in the bathroom

cleaning up the
towel and everything,

Veronica ran down the
stairs, ran out the house,

ran up the street to the
The Plumber's Arms pub,

and burst into the bar.

This was 10 to 10

and said, "Help, help my
husband's murdered my nanny."

And from that point, it
became a police matter.

They descended on the house.

[sombre music]

- Lady Lucan
attended the inquest,

and her role was to
give an account of

what happened to her
in terms of the attack,

which resulted in her
receiving those injuries.

The problem in this case
is that at the time,

the law did not allow her

to talk about her husband's
attack on Sandra Rivett

because at that time
a spouse couldn't give

evidence against the other.

So all that Lady
Lucan could talk about

was the attack on her.

She couldn't, in any
way, give evidence about

what Lord Lucan said when
she managed to calm him down

and he actually confessed
that he had killed Sandra.

She could not give
that evidence.

But that law has
subsequently changed

where a spouse can give evidence
against the other spouse in

relation to any offence

that they may have
committed against them.

- At the inquest,
which was June, 1975,

Sandra became more striking
to my mind, really,

because you can understand the
initial flurry around Lucan

and the excitement.

This very unlikely murderer.

Sandra's family were there

and her father, Albert said
to the press, you know this,

"This is all meant to
be about my daughter."

And her Aunt Vera
said the same thing,

but more, she was stronger.

"My niece is caught in the
crossfire between the Lucans

"and it's all about the Lucans."

Veronica had had a
tough time as well,

but Sandra's family is where
the sympathy should be going.

- It's just the dad

and the aunt sitting
at the back quietly.

And what they reflect on is

why wasn't this about Sandra?

Why was she completely ignored?

And that is devastating

because within that you
can hear the frustration,

the pain, and I
reckon the rage of

"How dare you ignore
my child, my niece,

"the victim of this story
as if she doesn't matter."

- I saw the crime
scene photographs

and she had taken blows

to her head, which were
clearly unsurvivable.

I am no medical expert.

But you could not have
survived the beating

that Lord Lucan gave her.

At the inquest, the main
source of interest was not

how Sandra died.

It was where was Lord Lucan

and what was the jury going
to say in their final verdict?

Because the inquest turned
into the trial of Lord Lucan.

Sandra was virtually forgotten.

- And so it became a bit
of a circus to some degree.

[tense music]

The media were there.

People turned up in
their fine regalia.

You had Lady Lucan

who was still suffering
from her injuries.

She had a hat that she wore
every day to hide them.

- Lord Lucan had hit her
over the head three times

with the metal bar with
which he'd killed Sandra.

And she had vertical gashes
running down her scalp like

this deep bone revealing gashes.

And she was still scarred

and her hair was
completely wrecked by this.

So she was in the habit

of wearing tight
turban hats each day.

Lady Lucan's hat attire

became a sort of a fashion
item in the papers.

- Nine times out of 10
when you have a inquest

and a coroner obviously
involved, nobody knows about it.

But this one was
like everyday news

and public could have attended.

It was a circus and I don't
think that that necessarily

allowed Sandra's family
to find some closure.

The postmortem in relation to
Sandra Rivett basically showed

that she had received,
at least is it nine blows

to the head and face.

There was significant
blunt trauma

and ultimately she died
as a result of those blows

as well as asphyxiation
from her own blood.

- It's what we call overkill.

So this was gratuitous in a way.

It was more violence than was
necessary just to cause death.

Plausibly, he probably thought

that it was Veronica
that he was attacking.

She was the one he felt
all this rage towards,

that rage was pent up.

And because it was such
gratuitous violence,

this killer is not only

and simply performing
a homicide,

they're getting
some emotional kind

of benefit from this as well.

- The coroner's conclusion,

and this was quite
rare, he basically said

that Lord Lucan was responsible
for Sandra Rivett's murder

and that is something
that was unheard of.

And it created a
bit of a backlash

because the whole point
of the inquest was

to establish the circumstances
surrounding someone's death.

Was it an accident?
Was it deliberate?

But the coroner in this
case went beyond that

and actually indicated that
Lord Lucan was the person

who had murdered Sandra Rivett.

[sombre music]

- What's interesting is because

of the fanciful nature in the
way this story was written up,

the press behaved in a way

that I think disrespected
the death of Sandra Rivett.

There was a case of the
newspaper report offering a case

of champagne to a
reader who came up

with the most inventive

or fanciful end for Lord
Lucan I.E, where is he now?

Give this horror story an end

and we will give you
a crate of champagne.

So they're turning it
really into a drama

and it had become,
yeah, a fairy story,

a horror fairy story,
a grim fairy story.

- The Fleet Street reporters

and I speak as someone
who was proudly one

for many reasons,

are a pretty unfeeling

and pretty nasty pack of people.

A lot of my former colleagues
are now snarling at me.

But it's true.

If you are dealing with a
constant stream of nastiness,

one of the ways of dealing
with that is to laugh it off

and make gallows jokes about it.

So I can't deny that the death

of Sandra Rivett would
not have been greeted by

the Fleet Street Crime reporting
pack with great sympathy

and sorrow.

That's not to say that
on a personal level,

I, or many of my then colleagues

would not have had
every sympathy for her

because she was just so unlucky.

But when you are in
that situation now,

50 years ago, the
intense competition

of Fleet Street, and I'm
talking really intense.

You were going through a time
in the 70s when she died,

when both the
police and the press

were not at their finest,

their morals were
distinctly un-fine.

It's regrettable,
but it was how it was

and it wasn't driven
by anyone's malice,

it was driven by a need
as reporters and media

and editors would've seen
it at the time by a need to

inform and keep circulation.

I mean, you know, it was
a very competitive era.

- I think the police
investigation was
pretty terrible.

There was quite a lot
of insinuation about

how she had a lot of boyfriends.

- She clearly liked
having a boyfriend.

Is that a crime to like
having a boyfriend?

I mean, it's a
confusing world, the 60s

and 70s where women
have to have a man,

but they have to
have a man according

to the very narrow social
expectations of the day

and the way Sandra did it
outside of wedlock or divorced.

Wow.

And a slight overlap.

I mean, how many men
have had an overlap?

Does one really
deserve to be murdered

for having a very
slight emotional overlap

in your heterosexual relations?

I think not, Great Britain.

- What really makes
me sad about Sandra is

that if she'd been born
20, even 10 years later,

I think her life would've
been completely different.

Sandra's sort of acknowledged
boyfriend was Australian,

he was called John Hankins

and she'd met him in
the Plumber's Arms Pub.

They seemed to have
been quite serious

because it was reported

that she had asked Roger
Rivett for a divorce

'cause they never
actually got divorced.

And he said, "Okay,
I'll divorce you."

But he never heard
from her again.

Presumably that was

because she was getting
serious with John Hankins.

- Veronica states on
record several times,

including during the inquiry.

She never had a
problem with Sandra.

Sandra had relations with men,

but she did not
bring those men home.

They did not affect her work.

It's irrelevant, it's
totally irrelevant.

- She had a really
attractive sort of

conventionally
attractive appearance

and obviously that's
appealing to the press.

There was a certain amount
about her boyfriends.

There was a certain amount
about her broken marriage

and I think that

I'm afraid is par
for the course.

Sadly, I'm not sure how
much that's changed.

- I don't believe that there
were any preconceived views

by the officers at the time.

I tried to put myself
in their position.

The officers would've turned
up to a horrendous scene.

They would've established at a
pretty early point the nature

of the injuries that she
received, that she was a nanny,

her having a boyfriend
or boyfriends.

I don't think that was
necessarily anything

that would've been then thinking

that had anything to do with it.

I genuinely think that those
officers were steadfast in

their desire to
establish the facts.

So I don't believe that that
had any bearing whatsoever on

the mindset of those
officers at that time.

- I think she'd have
had a great time now.

For somebody like her
who didn't settle,

which, you know it's not a crime

and she wouldn't have
had to be a nanny in

that weird household,
let's face it,

she'd be alive almost certainly.

[sombre music]

[dramatic music]

- After nearly 50 years,

my understanding is that
this is still a cold case

for the Metropolitan
Police Service.

This case would've
been very frustrating

for those officers
involved because initially,

and this is no disrespect
to my colleagues,

they may have assumed that
this was an open and shut case.

Everything pointed
to Lord Lucan.

The problem for them is they
were never ever able to speak

to him because he disappeared

and has never been
seen for 50 years.

- There are all these
unanswered questions,

but it may be that they're
just unanswered questions

for YouTubers and podcasters.

And the fact is we
still know who did it.

If I had to put forward a
theory, I'd probably say Lucan

employed a hitman and that's
why they got the wrong woman

and attacked
Veronica in a panic.

But even that doesn't
fit all the facts.

- We all have our views

and thoughts as to what may
have happened to Lord Lucan.

From my perspective,
there's nothing to suggest

that he committed suicide.

For me, it would suggest that

after the event
somebody helped him

to possibly leave the country
at some point in time.

It didn't have to be in
the first 48, 72 hours.

It could be a week,
two weeks after

and has probably been
able to look after him

and support him over the years.

That is my own personal view.

I know other people
may probably disagree,

but it seems too convenient
for someone to have disappeared

after such a
significant incident

and not be found for 50 years
without having some help.

- I still don't believe
Lord Lucan did it.

No way.

I don't see him hurting a fly.

I never allow
myself to judge her.

They were both lost creatures
in this world of madness.

[gentle music]

- The trouble with this
story is so many hangers on

after the event were just
saying the most unbelievable.

I still hear things from
people who say, "Oh,

"Veronica did this."

or "Do you know Lucan was
fed to a bunch of tigers?"

And it's all, it's a story

that breeds a lot
of real nonsense.

- I've heard the stories

of Aspinall feeding
Lucan into the tigers.

I would've believed it more
if he'd fed him to pigs

'cause pigs will eat anything.

It's never really
rung true with me.

Aspinall wasn't a
close friend of his.

He didn't particularly
like Lucan,

but Lucan was very useful to him

because he was seen

as an aristocratic playing
member at the club,

an attraction to others
to go to Aspinall's clubs.

I can think of no reason on
earth that he would've gone

to the trouble of trying
to feed, you know,

Lucan to the tigers.

What happened to him?

I don't believe he's dead.

He may by now have
died of natural causes.

He will be 90 very soon.

But his father lived
to a decent age.

So if you accept that he ran
away that night and escaped,

then he may well
still be out there.

But the family

and friends of his have tried
very hard through the years

to suggest that he took
the honourable course

and killed himself.

But I've never believed
that for one moment,

it's very hard to kill yourself
and hide your own body.

[suspenseful music]

- Veronica had a really
tough time after all this.

She got these head wounds.

She was in hospital.

She sort of seemed
to cut herself off.

Her life did start to
sort of fall apart really.

She did in fact lose her
children at the end of it all.

- [Interviewer] Are you
going to start proceedings

to get your husband
declared legally dead?

- No, I'm not.
- Why not?

- Because I don't think he is.

- [Interviewer] Would it not
make a difference to your life

if you did?

As far as the last seven
years have shown me,

it would make
absolutely no difference

to my life whatsoever.

Apart from doing
something which I don't

really believe to be true.

- [Interviewer] Do you
think you'll see him again?

- I always hope to,

but I have a feeling that
I won't see him again.

I don't think he'll come back.

He'll have made another
life for himself.

I always hope though,
there's always a possibility.

- How has life changed for you?

What do you do from day to day?

- It's changed to one
day is like another.

It's like being isolated.

It's worse than being in prison

because I haven't got any prison
inmates with me to talk to.

I'm in solitary confinement

and I feel hostility from
those that I knew before.

- She lived in the muse house
behind Lower Belgrave Street.

And then she would occasionally
say, "I still adore John."

As she called him, Lucan.

She kept his portrait.

She's very
complicated, Veronica.

She deliberately went on
television near the end

of her life and just to
reassert her version of events,

[gentle music]

she was brilliant,
absolutely brilliant

'cause I think it did
worry her that people said,

you know, some of this
evidence is a bit conflicting.

She did have friends, but
she seemed still to be

very, I don't know if she
was obsessed with Lucan,

but I think the idea
of having married him,

I think that still pleased her.

I saw her near Buckingham
Palace not that long

before she died actually.

And she looked very, you
know, she was immaculate

like older ladies
in the 1970s really.

She died in 2017.

It seems a very difficult life.

- Veronica said towards
the end of her life,

her biggest fear was
becoming dependent on others

and that she supported
assisted suicide.

And I don't think
it's any real surprise

that she was subsequently
found dead in her own home.

And it was presumed that she
had indeed taken her own life.

There is something
really very pitiful

about the whole episode.

- She was quite a
feisty lady who was able

to stick up for herself.

I met her many years
after this all happened.

I went to her house
and I spoke to her

and she invited me in
knowing I was a journalist

or knowing as I
was then an author.

I wanted to write
a book about it.

So I introduced myself.

She invited me into a little
tiny living room that she had

and she actually brought out tea

and we had a cup
of tea together.

And she was pleasant and helpful

and she tried to paint Lord
Lucan in quite a good light.

She wasn't desperately
nasty about him at all.

And I went back the very next
day, banged on the same door

and she opened the door and
threw a cup of urine in over me

and started literally
in the middle

of the street screaming
I was gutter press

and I should F off.

And I told that story
to Bill Shand Kydd,

who'd raised her children and
knew her very well indeed.

And he said, "Oh, that
was typical Veronica."

- I think what was very touching

and really in some ways typical
of what we've got to know

of Veronica, that she was able
to recognise that the tragedy

of their marriage and the
discord in that marriage led

to the loss of
Sandra Rivett's life

and how sorry she
was about that.

And that there was nothing
she could do about that,

but that she would
never forget her or it.

And that really
speaks to Veronica's
humanity, her empathy,

and also to a sisterhood,
if you like, almost,

with a fellow woman who
hadn't had an easy path

and who'd got caught
up in a psychodrama

that was really of
none of her doing.

[gentle piano music]

- Sandra's sister described
her in the newspapers.

She said she was fun-loving.

She was, you know,
up for a laugh.

She was sociable, she
was kind, thoughtful.

Just all the things
that make you

think she was actually
a lovely young woman.

And it it just very, very
poignant tribute to her.

- John actually,

her last boyfriend said
she was a really good girl.

He actually was deeply one
of the most touching bits

of the case, but
never gets heard.

She was a lovely lass.

She might have had a
rather lovely future

after a bit of a
questionable start in life.

Poor girl.

- John Hankins talked to
the papers quite a lot

after it all happened.

He gave the impression
that they might have gone

to Australia, they might have
had a happy life together.

- She was a lovely
girl, lovely nature.

And it's sad really 'cause
she didn't deserve that,

didn't have a bad
bone in her at all.

[bright music]

- I think it's so often
the case when we report

or record crime, the
victim gets overlooked

time and time again.

And when we refer to
the case of Lord Lucan,

can we please put
before his name,

the name of the
victim of the murder.

She was called Sandra Rivett,

and she lost her life on

that night in a basement
in London in 1974.

The innocent victim of the case.

[bright music]

[bright music continues]

[bright music ends]