BARON Michael de Stempel last night was found guilty of plotting to
steal from a wealthy relative, former society hostess Lady Margaret
Illingworth.
But the jury, which spent 11 hours deliberating after the nine-week
trial, has yet to reach verdicts on his two stepchildren, Sophia
Wilberforce, 27, and Marcus Wilberforce, 28.
Judge Richard Curtis sent the jurors to spend a second night in an
hotel and they will continue trying to reach verdicts at Birmingham
Crown Court today.
The 60-year-old baron, of Hampstead, London, and his stepchildren pled
not guilty to conspiring to steal from Lady Illingworth between January,
1984, and January, 1986.
Mr Timothy Barnes, QC, prosecuting, alleged that they had acted as a
team and had taken ''vast quantities'' of her property.
He said that cash and goods worth #500,000 were taken from the late
Lady Illingworth, a former society hostess and the widow of a former
Conservative Postmaster General.
Mr Barnes said that the money was taken from her when she went to live
with them and her niece, Baroness Susan de Stempel, 55, at their then
home at Forresters Hall, Docklow, Hereford and Worcester.
The baroness has pled guilty to five charges of theft and two of
forgery relating to Lady Illingworth and she and the baron -- now
divorced -- will be sentenced later.
A former Lloyds broker, Baron de Stempel, whose title is Russian,
claimed his marriage to the baroness was never consummated and that they
had divorced after she tried to have him certified insane.
He denied receiving around #40,000 from the baroness for his part in
robbing Lady Illingworth of much of the fortune she was left by her
husband when he died in the 1940s.
Verdicts against Sophia Wilberforce, of Shepherds Bush, London, and
her brother, of Hoptonheath, Shropshire, are expected today.
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