Bogus aristocrat given away by family
Bogus aristocrat given away by family
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Monday, 08, May 2006 05:42
A man who posed as the Earl of Buckingham for over 20 years and refused to reveal his true name after being caught has finally been given away – by his own family.
Charles Albert Stopford, an ex-spy from the US, would have kept his anonymity if his parents, seeing his picture on Sky News, had not rung police to insist that the mystery man was their missing eldest son.
Kent police, liaising with Florida authorities, used fingerprint checks to confirm that Stopford was the man who had stolen the identity of Christopher Edward Buckingham, a baby who had died in 1963.
"It is a real relief after 23 years of not knowing," the sister of 'Lord Buckingham', Becky Davis, told the Times.
"This is awesome news for all our family… we all want to speak to him and see him again."
After Stopford was arrested in January 2005 in Britain following the rejection of his passport by French authorities, he began serving a nine-month jail sentence before being handed over to the UK Immigration Service in February this year.
Detective Sergeant Paul Bratton, of Kent police, who led the case, said that the inquiry had been "distressing" for all concerned – "for the mother who's dead baby boy's identity he stole, for this man's former wife and his children who have been left wondering who 'Buckingham' really is and indeed for Charles Stopford's family in America".
"Now his true identity has been confirmed, hopefully this will help them all come to terms with what has happened."
The Stropfords may have to wait beyond the end of the fake Earl of Buckingham's jail term for their reunion as American authorities may wish to question him about his untimely departure from the US in 1983.
Having been convicted of plotting to blow up his US Navy boss' car with a pipe bomb, Stopford had violated his probation before fleeing to Japan, Germany and, finally, the UK.
Stopford's ex-wife, who knew him as Christopher Buckingham during the 1980s and who had two children with the impostor, said she was "completely overwhelmed" by revelations about her divorced husband's true identity.