 | Like "Nancy Grace" on a missing blond, I refuse to let Earl go.. |
His legs in chains, the man charged with murdering the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury is led to the spot where he dumped the body. Mohammed M'Barek, 41, will stand trial with his sister, Jamila, the earl's third wife, in the south of France later this year. They are accused of murdering the eccentric aristocrat during an argument about divorce arrangements. | Jamila, the sultry 'bar hostess' with a body to die for and her ner-do-well brother Mohammed lured the Earl to his doom. |
M'Barek, who is Tunisian-born, was taken to the wooded ravine outside the Riviera resort of Thèoule-sur-Mer last week as part of an 11-hour reconstruction of the crime. The earl's body was represented by a 13st 5lb mannequin, constructed to his precise height and weight.
| "Yes! That's him! I'd recognize his weight anywhere! [Sob!]" |
Police freed M'Barek's hands only to allow him to show investigators, lawyers and the investigating judge, Catherine Bonnici, how he says he abandoned the body in the ravine. He lifted the model from the car and dragged it through grass until throwing it into the undergrowth concealing a small ravine with a stream. | Shallow graves will get you every time. |
His 38-year-old sister, a former hooker bar hostess, was not taken to the site because she claims to have remained on the outskirts of Thèoule-sur-Mer while her brother disposed of the body.
| "No, no! It wuz not me who disposed of my husband, Inspector! You mus' believe me!" |
But she was involved in attempts to re-enact events at the flat that she and the earl had shared in a plush residential area of Cannes. | She'll be trying to make her story fit the evidence without implicating herself too much. |
M'Barek says he accidentally strangled the earl during a scuffle. | The brother, with a rope, in the drawing room |
"Tell me, Madam: How does one 'accidentally' strangle someone?"
"I cannot describe it, Inspector! I must show you!"
"Hmmm... Use the butler."
"[Urk!]"
[Thud!]
"Hmmm... Yes. I can see how it could happen. You may get up now, Jean-Claude... Jean-Claude?" |
His sister claims her only role was to agree under duress to help load the body into her brother's car. | A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a body |
"Yes, Inspector! I helped move him only under duress! Otherwise I would have left him there!"
"I quite understand, Madam." |
Prosecutors allege that she had agreed to pay M'Barek to kill her husband. But she has reportedly told investigators: "I did not want him to die. I just wanted my brother to intimidate him so that he would continue to pay me my allowance. But he didn't want to have anything to do with it, so a violent quarrel broke out. I left the room because I could not stand to see what was happening." | "That's my story and I'm sticking to it" |
Lord Shaftesbury, 66, who divided his time between Britain and the south of France, where he was known to frequent hostess bars, disappeared in November 2004. When details of the earl's disappearance were revealed, his wife told The Daily Telegraph she was "as worried as anyone about his safety". | "I'm so worried about poor Tony. Uh, now how long does he have to be missing before I can declare him dead and collect?" |
In fact, he was already dead. His body was found four months later. He was cremated in Monaco and buried at his family seat in Wimborne, Dorset. His elder son, Anthony, died of natural causes only five weeks after becoming the 11th earl and was succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas. |
