BRITISH LORD MURDERED

  BATH—Sir Derek Brock-Smythe, outspoken former foreign minister and well-known philanthropist, was found murdered in his Avonshire home this morning. According to police, he had been shot to death sometime Friday night, but the body was not discovered earlier because he had dismissed his servants for the weekend.

  Police stated that his unclothed body was found in bed, wrists and ankles tied to the bedposts with a woman's nylon stockings. He died of a gunshot wound to the head. Apparently the pistol was held in his mouth when the trigger was pulled.

  "It's a grisly sight," said Inspector Carlin Mayes. "Some sort of sexual thing gone wrong, undoubtedly."

  Police are questioning the household servants and known friends of Sir Derek's.

  Ms. Joanna Ames, a frequent houseguest, revealed that he had "unusual" sexual tastes. "It might have been some game he was playing with someone that simply went too far," she said.

  Sir Derek had been a member of Parliament since 1976 and served as foreign minister from 1990 to 1994, when he resigned over the government's decision to quit the European Community.

  After his resignation he devoted most of his time to philanthropic and scientific pursuits, He founded and financed the Sir Walter Brock Laboratory in Lancashire in the hope of attracting "the flower of British science to forge a technology worthy of the coming millennium."

  Sir Derek's adoptive brother, Dr. Chakra Ramsanjawi, is currently in a Zurich prison awaiting trial on charges of criminal conspiracy and theft brought by Trikon International Corp. and Ciba-Geigy A.G. He is also fighting extradition to the United States, where he has been indicted on drug and assault charges stemming from the recent Trikon space station incident.

  When asked if there might be any relationship between Dr. Ramsanjawi's arrest and Sir Derek's murder, Ms. Ames replied, "I simply don't know. That's something the police will have to consider."

  Ms. Ames, who was in London for the weekend, said the news of Sir Derek's murder reached her just before she left for Italy. She is taking sabbatical leave from her faculty position at Oxford to spend a year teaching in Venice on a Trikon International fellowship.

  —The London Express, 2 November 1998