Australian forensic facial expert examines whether a Perth monk could actually be fugitive British aristocrat Lord Lucan

The Perth man alleged to be the fugitive British aristocrat Lord Lucan is unlikely to him, according a report by forensic facial examiner. The UK’s Daily Mirror last month splashed across its front page “the bombshell claim” that Lord Lucan had been tracked down to a shared house in suburban Perth, where he lives as a Buddhist monk. Lucan vanished in 1974 after murdering his children’s nanny Sandra Rivett. The mystery of his disappearance has fascinated Britain for decades. The Mirror’s story, which reported that Ms Rivett’s son Neil Berriman had located his mother’s killer in Perth and had passed on his information to detectives at Scotland Yard, was eagerly followed up by other British media. But the Buddhist monk at the centre of the claims hasn’t been seen in Perth for years and a facial examiner engaged by The West Australian has produced a report which casts doubt on the claims the two men are the same. Dr Susan Hayes from the University of Wollongong compared photographs of Lord Lucan with photos taken several years ago of the monk, while taking into consideration patterns of male facial ageing. Although noting similarities between the facial features of both men, she found there were “qualitative and quantitative differences between the images”. Dr Hayes wrote the “main areas of difference that ... fall outside what could be predicted from the literature” on male facial ageing were the ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. Dr Hayes said she doesn’t make conclusions about identity. But she said it was open for The West Australian to interpret from her report that if the WA man was Lord Lucan, then he has aged quite differently from what peer reviewed, scientific studies of mature European male ageing would indicate. The West Australian is aware that Mr Berriman was tipped off about the mystery monk by Fremantle man Stephen Gillis, who has spent years trying to convince people that he is Lord Lucan. Mr Berriman visited Mr Gillis at his home a couple of years ago. Mr Berriman told the Daily Mirror: “(Lord Lucan) has been alive all this time. Lying about who he is. Lying about it to his new friends (in Perth). They are fully aware he is a mystery elderly Englishman and not who he is claiming to be ... what he tells them does not add up. They have had their suspicions for many years. Mr Berriman, 52, said he spent $58,000 of his own money tracking him down to Perth. Mr Gillis said he hasn’t seen the monk for years and doesn’t known where he is. How Dr Hayes’ comparison was made Ears: “The WA male has relatively large protruding ears, while Lord Lucan has relatively small, close-set ears. None of the literature describes the development of ear protrusion as a characteristic of adult ageing, but instead the literature reports that the ears will tend to become less protrusive (though larger in height and to a lesser extent width) over time.” Nose: “The WA male has a wider nose (at the base, between the nose wings) than would be expected, and his nose is possibly slightly shorter in height, rather than slightly longer. The WA male’s nasal tip is also substantially wider, angled to the right, and located higher than that of Lord Lucan (whose nose tip is narrow and slightly angled to the left). The literature strongly indicates the nasal tip droops lower with age, and one study reports little change in the nasal tip shape over time. Furthermore, the angle of the base of the WA male’s nose is the inverse of Lord Lucan’s.” Mouth: “Although mouths tend to widen, or at least appear to widen, with age, the WA male appears to have a narrower mouth width than Lord Lucan, particularly on the right. Mouth width is difficult to discern, however, given both images depict the mouth corners obscured to some extent by facial hair.” Eyes: “The WA Male has a larger right eye, while Lord Lucan has a larger left eye. Although eye visibility is affected by the ageing process, the eyes are the more stable features of the face.”