Nothing like Lord Lucan

An eccentric Brit living in a Land Rover in New Zealand has denied wild speculation that he is Lord Lucan, the missing peer whose disappearance sparked an international manhunt 20 years ago after the death of his nanny.

Glaring angrily across the fields at a neighbour’s house, Roger Woodgate said: “It’s them – they keep saying I’m Lord Lucan, and I’m not.”

Do I look like Lord Lucan? he asked the London Daily Mail, as he stood outside his Land Rover in New Zealand, accompanied by his only friend – pet possum Redfern

“It’s a load of old poppycock,” said 62-year-old Mr Woodgate.

“For a start, I’m ten years younger than Lucan. I’m also five inches shorter. If anyone can see a likeness in me and him, I’m more than happy to let them dream on.”

Mr Woodgate, a former photographer from North London who once worked for the Ministry of Defence, says he emigrated to New Zealand five months before Lord Lucan disappeared.

Although he has a ramshackle house four miles from the North Island town of Marton, he prefers to sleep in his 1974 Land Rover, his only companion a possum called Redfern.

“I’m just a friendly old Brit who wants to live out his days in peace and quiet.”

Tags: off-the-grid, london_daily_mail