My aristocrat husband lusted after drugs and call girls but I never wanted him dead, says earl’s widow after murder
THOUSANDS of tourists admire London’s Eros statue, unaware that the great great grandson of the man it honours was brought down by love and sex – which is exactly what the Greek God represents.
The monument in Picadilly Circus marks the philanthropic work of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, but it is his descendant, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, whose name goes down in history.
The younger aristocrat, the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, had a lust for alcohol, drugs and call girls that would have shamed his forefather.
He was said to pay £4,000 a night for sex workers after boozing in South of France bars.
Sometimes, though, he just wanted to talk.
And it was one such night spent with female escort and former Playboy model Jamila M’Barek that would ultimately lead to his murder.
The Earl later made her his third wife but, after asking for a divorce, he suddenly vanished.
His November 2004 disappearance became global news, with theories that the toff’s massive debts or the Mafia could be to blame.
Five months later, Anthony’s skeletal remains were found in a ravine in a forest near Cannes.
Jamila was arrested and, in court, prosecutors claimed she paid her brother Mohammed £130,000 to kill him.
A jury found the M’Barek siblings guilty of the Earl’s murder in 2007 and both were jailed for 25 years.
But she spent just nine years behind bars before being released, while Mohammed is still locked up.
Now, in new Channel 5 documentary A Very British Sex Scandal: The Earl & the Escort, which airs tonight, Jamila speaks about the shocking case.
Still able to use the title the Dowager Countess of Shaftesbury, she denies wanting Anthony dead.
But she says of his family: “I would like to explain to them everything. I would tell them, ‘Sorry for the pain you had’.
‘It broke my life, too’
“I feel sorry for his family because Anthony was a very nice person, really generous. I regret what happened.”
The most illustrious of the Shaftesbury dynasty was the 7th Earl, who campaigned against child labour and in favour of education in the 19th century.
Both Shaftesbury Avenue and the Eros statue — which was officially called the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain — were named after him.
Ironically, it is actually Greek God Anteros, avenger of unrequited love, that tops the landmark.
I feel sorry for his family because Anthony was a very nice person, really generous. I regret what happened
Jamila
Yet it is popularly known as Eros.
When the philanthropist’s great great grandson Anthony became the 10th Earl in 1961, aged 22, he was said to be among the UK’s ten richest men.
But the upkeep of his dilapidated, 70 room St Giles House in Dorset — a Grade I listed, 17th century stately home — drained a lot of those funds.
Equally damaging were the expensive gifts he lavished on the women in his life.
And they were not necessarily his first two wives, Bianca de Paolis, who was 12 years his senior, and Christina Montan, with whom he had two sons.
After his second divorce in 2000, Anthony moved to the South of France and reportedly spent more than a million pounds on former Penthouse magazine model Nathalie Lions.
He also regularly called escort agency boss Catherine Gurtler seeking women for company, costing thousands a time.
Gurtler says: “He called me always late in the night. I think he was someone who was a little bit depressed.”
Concerned that he would blow the Shaftesbury fortune, the family put much of his inheritance in a trust.
Jamila did not know that when, in February 2002, Gurtler sent her to the Earl’s Cote d’Azur home.
The mother-of-two, who claimed at her trial she had been linked to actors Bruce Willis and George Clooney, plus tennis ace Bjorn Borg — an allegation they all denied — was used to bedding wealthy men.
Anthony differed from other clients as, on their first night, they did not have sex.
She recalls: “He was drunk and had cocaine on the table.
He asked if I wanted some and I said no. He talked all night.”
When they wed in Holland in November 2002, Anthony gifted Jamila a holiday pad in a windmill and a half a million pound apartment in Cannes.
She says: “The first year was perfect. I had my own house. I had my kids with me.”
In truth, the Earl was struggling to maintain their lavish lifestyle, having run up credit card bills and tax debts.
I loved Anthony and I had a good life with him. Of course, it broke my life, too
Jamila
Soon, Jamila claims, he was drinking heavily again and seeking the company of high class call girls.
He also formed serious relationships, including with Nadia Orche in the south of France.
Brian Hook, a former New Scotland Yard detective, says: “At that point, the Earl is withdrawing huge amounts of money on an almost daily basis.”
Added to this dangerous cocktail was Jamila’s brother Mohammed, an ex-footballer with a violent temper.
In April 2004, Anthony told Jamila he wanted a divorce, which could jeopardise the flat in Versailles, villa in Nice and £4million she would inherit.
In November that year, the Earl was seen for the last time leaving a hotel in Cannes, telling the barman he would be back to finish his drink.
Cops at first thought he had planned to vanish.
But Jamila knew Mohammed had killed the 66-year old, although she tells the documentary it was self-defence during an argument at her home.
However detectives who tapped her phone found conversations about Anthony’s body being moved.
Data also put her in the area where her husband’s corpse was dumped just days before he went missing, and there was evidence she made payments to Mohammed.
Tragically, a month after the Earl’s body was found, his eldest son, Anthony, 27, died of a heart attack.
Jamila, now living in Switzerland, says: “I loved Anthony and I had a good life with him. Of course, it broke my life, too.”
Words that are unlikely to comfort Anthony’s surviving son Nicholas, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury.
- A Very British Sex Scandal: The Earl & the Escort, tonight, Channel 5, 9pm.