Billionaire heir avoids jail after wife’s body find

One of Britain’s richest men has avoided a jail sentence after he admitted preventing the lawful and decent burial of his wife’s body.

Hans Rausing, who also pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle while unfit through drugs, was given two suspended sentences for the offences after Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson told him his behaviour was “an illustration of the utterly destructive effects of drug misuse”.

Police discovered the body of mother-of-four Eva Rausing in an advanced state of decomposition after they arrested her husband – heir to the Tetra Pak billions – on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs on July 9.

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A post-mortem examination established she had died on May 7.

Prosecutor James O’Connell told the court drug paraphernalia was found in Rausing’s car and a search revealed a “substantial” amount of post addressed to his wife. “The defendant appeared to be under the influence of one substance or another,” Mr O’Connell told the court.

A blood test revealed the use of drugs including cocaine, morphine, diazepam and temazepam.

When asked where his wife was, Rausing told officers she had been in the US for the past two weeks, Mr O’Connell said.

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Mrs Rausing had, however, returned to the UK on April 29 and she met her financial adviser on May 3, the last time she was seen by witnesses.

Isleworth Crown Court, in London, heard her body was found in a fly-filled room in their London home hidden beneath clothing and bin bags. Traces of cocaine, opiates, and amphetamimes were found in her body.

The court heard Rausing told police after his arrest: “I do not have a very coherent recollection of the events leading up to and since Eva’s death. Safe to assure you that I have never wished her or done her any harm.”

Alexander Cameron QC, defending Rausing, said a psychiatrist’s report described him as a “shy and socially awkward” man who was “very ill at ease in the company of others” and has a history of withdrawing into himself.

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He suffered from “severe anxiety and feelings of inferiority” with a “tendency to medicate his anxieties by drug-taking”.

The court heard he was “totally dependent” on his wife, with whom he had a loving relationship, and in the prepared statement to the police, read to the court, he added: “I do not know what caused her death, I did not feel able to confront the reality of her death.”

Mr Cameron told the court a psychiatrist’s report described Rausing’s reaction as one of “overwhelming emotional trauma”.

Rausing is said to have told the psychiatrist: “I know it is selfish but I just didn’t want her to leave.”

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He was given a 10-month prison sentence suspended for two years for preventing the lawful and decent burial of his wife. A second two-month prison sentence suspended for two years was imposed to run concurrently after he admitted driving while unfit through drugs.

Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, also ordered he should undergo a two-year programme of drug rehabilitation.

Judge McGregor-Johnson said: “If ever there was an illustration of the utterly destructive effects of drug misuse on individuals and their families, it is to be found in the facts of this case.

“You and your wife had every material advantage imaginable, and for a time a happy family life. Your relapse into the misuse of drugs, together with that of your wife, destroyed all that.”

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Judge McGregor-Johnson added the effects of drugs had been “graphically illustrated” by the contrast between the rooms shown to visitors at their home in Cadogan Place, and the “utter squalor” of the rooms they really lived in.

He said he accepted medical evidence, including that of the examination of Mrs Rausing’s pacemaker, suggesting she died of heart failure coupled with the effects of drugs.

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