THE three-year-old son of a man known as the Lockerbie orphan has inherited the bulk of his father's #1.5m fortune.
Luke Flannigan will not receive his legacy until he is 25, but by then it could be worth between #8m and #10m.
Details of the estate are revealed in Steven Flannigan's will following his death in a railway accident almost a year ago. He and his elder brother, David, became known as the ''Orphans of Lockerbie'' after their parents, Tom, 44, and Kathleen, 41, were killed with their younger sister, Joanne, 10, when the wreckage of PanAm flight 103 crashed into the family home in December 1988.
Between them, the brothers were awarded compensation of more than #2m. But David Flannigan, who was 18 at the time of the disaster, could not cope with his sudden wealth. He spent huge amounts of cash on alcohol and drugs.
In December 1993, he died of heart failure while on holiday in Thailand. Steven, four years David's junior, promised to invest wisely his share of the compensation. He leaves a #1.5m fortune in property, Treasury bonds and an impressive shares portfolio.
Luke, the result of a relationship between Mr Flannigan and Lisa Gregory, will inherit most of the fortune on his 25th birthday. Before this he will receive a car when he passes his driving test and a modest sum of cash when he is 21.
The bulk of the estate will be held in trust by Steven's uncle, Lawrence Doolan, who lives in Australia.
Mr Flannigan also left #10,000 each to 12-year-old Lockerbie twins Rachel and Hannah Prothero. He was their godfather, and came to regard the Protheros as his new family. The girls will receive their legacy on their 18th birthdays.
Luke's mother has since married Jim Nesfield, a gamekeeper. They live on a farm outside Lockerbie. She declined to comment on her son's inheritance.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article