Buxom Wench
05-09-2006, 09:39 AM
OK, I just want to know, why in the world did it take soooooooo long to realize the title this IDIOT was using has been extinct for over 300 years????
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http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/08/bogus.earl.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Police: Fake nobleman is a thief
Monday, May 8, 2006; Posted: 10:15 p.m. EDT (02:15 GMT)
LONDON, England (AP) -- A mystery detainee who assumed the name of a dead baby and created a bogus identity as an English nobleman is actually an American citizen missing from Florida for more than 20 years, police said Monday.
Charles Albert Stopford III, 43, a native of Clearwater, Florida, who was arrested in January 2005 and convicted of identity theft, insisted he was the Earl of Buckingham, and was born Christopher Edward Buckingham in 1963, said Detective Sergeant Paul Bratton, of Kent Police in southeast England, the force responsible for his arrest.
Throughout a nine-month prison sentence he continued to maintain he was the nobleman. He has remained in jail since, completing the sentence because of his refusal to reveal who he is.
His true identity was finally revealed after U.S. authorities confirmed Stopford's identity by reviewing fingerprints sent to them by police in Britain, Bratton said.
The story of the fake nobleman has sparked interest on both sides of the Atlantic, since Stopford's relatives said last week that they recognized the mystery man.
They saw photos of the fake lord on the Internet along with a story in The Times on Thursday, concluding he is Stopford.
"When I first saw his photo, I cried and I was excited because I was 100 percent positive it was him," his sister Rebecca Davis said in an excerpt of a documentary on the case aired on cable channel Sky One Saturday.
His father, also called Charles, said he has no idea why his son suddenly vanished in April 1983 at age 21 from Orlando, Florida where he had been living with his grandmother.
Stopford married a Canadian woman named Jody Doe, 40, and had two children, 20-year-old Lyndsey and Edward, 18. In a statement, Doe, who divorced Stopford in 1997, said the family was overwhelmed by the revelation and has contacted Stopford's family in Florida.
"Both Lyndsey and Edward are thrilled about the recent developments and confirmation of who their father is," said Doe. "(They) will need time to adjust to meeting their new family and live with the hope of being reunited with their father."
Stopford was arrested in January 2005 as he tried to enter Dover, England, from Calais, France, across the English Channel. Police ran a passport check and saw that the person with his name was supposed to be dead.
He was found guilty of taking the name of a Christopher Buckingham, who died in 1963 at the age of 8 months, and using it to obtain documents to live as a British national.
For the past decade he has been calling himself the Earl of Buckingham, a title that has been extinct for more than 300 years.
Kent Police said British immigration officials will now liaise with American authorities to determine what happens to Stopford.
************************************************** ********
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/08/bogus.earl.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Police: Fake nobleman is a thief
Monday, May 8, 2006; Posted: 10:15 p.m. EDT (02:15 GMT)
LONDON, England (AP) -- A mystery detainee who assumed the name of a dead baby and created a bogus identity as an English nobleman is actually an American citizen missing from Florida for more than 20 years, police said Monday.
Charles Albert Stopford III, 43, a native of Clearwater, Florida, who was arrested in January 2005 and convicted of identity theft, insisted he was the Earl of Buckingham, and was born Christopher Edward Buckingham in 1963, said Detective Sergeant Paul Bratton, of Kent Police in southeast England, the force responsible for his arrest.
Throughout a nine-month prison sentence he continued to maintain he was the nobleman. He has remained in jail since, completing the sentence because of his refusal to reveal who he is.
His true identity was finally revealed after U.S. authorities confirmed Stopford's identity by reviewing fingerprints sent to them by police in Britain, Bratton said.
The story of the fake nobleman has sparked interest on both sides of the Atlantic, since Stopford's relatives said last week that they recognized the mystery man.
They saw photos of the fake lord on the Internet along with a story in The Times on Thursday, concluding he is Stopford.
"When I first saw his photo, I cried and I was excited because I was 100 percent positive it was him," his sister Rebecca Davis said in an excerpt of a documentary on the case aired on cable channel Sky One Saturday.
His father, also called Charles, said he has no idea why his son suddenly vanished in April 1983 at age 21 from Orlando, Florida where he had been living with his grandmother.
Stopford married a Canadian woman named Jody Doe, 40, and had two children, 20-year-old Lyndsey and Edward, 18. In a statement, Doe, who divorced Stopford in 1997, said the family was overwhelmed by the revelation and has contacted Stopford's family in Florida.
"Both Lyndsey and Edward are thrilled about the recent developments and confirmation of who their father is," said Doe. "(They) will need time to adjust to meeting their new family and live with the hope of being reunited with their father."
Stopford was arrested in January 2005 as he tried to enter Dover, England, from Calais, France, across the English Channel. Police ran a passport check and saw that the person with his name was supposed to be dead.
He was found guilty of taking the name of a Christopher Buckingham, who died in 1963 at the age of 8 months, and using it to obtain documents to live as a British national.
For the past decade he has been calling himself the Earl of Buckingham, a title that has been extinct for more than 300 years.
Kent Police said British immigration officials will now liaise with American authorities to determine what happens to Stopford.