The 10th Earl of Shaftesbury was strangled by his wife's brother in Cannes, and his heir died six months later

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, owned more than 9,000 acres in Dorset, the family seat of St Giles House and the bed of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. In 2002 he married his third wife, Jamila M'Barek, and wrote her into his will. By 2004 the marriage had broken down. He arrived in Nice on 3 November 2004, visited her the next day and vanished after leaving his Cannes hotel. On 7 April 2005 a decomposed body was found in a ravine at Théoule-sur-Mer, after her brother Mohamed showed police the place. The pair said he died in a scuffle in her Cannes flat. Prosecutors said she feared a divorce would cost her the inheritance. On 25 May 2007 the assize court in Nice convicted both of murder and gave each 25 years. Mohamed dropped his appeal. The Aix-en-Provence appeal court cut Jamila's sentence to 20 years on 12 February 2009, and the Cour de cassation rejected her last appeal on 22 January 2010. The new 11th Earl, Anthony, aged 27, died of a heart attack in Manhattan on 15 May 2005. His brother Nicholas, a New York DJ, became 12th Earl. St Giles had stood empty for about 60 years. He began restoring it in 2011 and moved in by 2012. In 2026 he still owns the bed of Lough Neagh; in October 2023 he said he would sell it to Northern Ireland but not give it away, and no sale has been reported.