Amazing snapshot of Lord Lucan's life

A BOX of Lord Lucan's personal possessions can be revealed for the first time today after being hidden away for decades.

- ANDY LINES

The extraordinary collection includes his chequebook, a signed letter from Formula One legend Graham Hill, and porn photos.

There are bank statements, his Ladbrokes betting account, his cap, camera and even his milk bill.

There is a book about a top judge in which Lucan had carefully underlined murder scenarios and ripped out pages where murderers had escaped justice.

Police left it behind in the flat in Elizabeth Street, central London, and never bothered to look at it. The items were taken by an accountant who police allowed into Lucan's flat weeks after he vanished after murdering nanny Sandra Rivett in 1974. The on the 20th accountant had been tasked with trying to clear up Lucan's debts.

In 1994 anniversary of the murder - the accountant was contacted by author Bob Strange who bought them for a price of a cup of coffee and kept them in his attic all this time.

Bob says: "He was sorting out Lucan's debts and was allowed by the police to go into the flat to look at Lucan's personal effects.

"He was only allowed in for a short time but he was allowed to take all these letters and his personal effects.

"He took them back to his office and they stayed in a box in a cupboard until I contacted him in 1994 when I was writing a book and I went to visit him.

"He only mentioned the items at the very end of the conversation and he allowed me to have them.

"There was a box with Lord Lucan's chequebook on the top.

"But I remember then he said, 'I have a fiduciary duty to maximise the money I collect so I can't give them to you but buy me a coffee'. I then remember counting out £1.87 in coins and giving it to him."

As he looks through the items on his kitchen table now, Bob says: "It really is a time capsule, an extraordinary slice of history. A goldmine."

He was particularly interested in Lucan's copy of a book called The Life of Lord Birkett of Ulverston, which has several pages ripped out.