Pippa Middleton’s father-in-law David Matthews arrested on charge of raping minor in 1990s
According to Agence France-Presse and British newspaper The Telegraph, the 74-year-old was taken into custody on Tuesday at Paris’ Orly Airport and questioned
David Matthews, the father-in-law of Duchess Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton, was arrested by French police earlier this week and charged with the rape of a minor in the late 1990s, Agence France-Presse and British newspaper The Telegraph reported on Friday.
According to those two outlets, Matthews, 74, was taken into custody on Tuesday at Paris’ Orly Airport and questioned by officers from the Protection of Minors Brigade.
A Parisian judicial official confirmed his arrest to The Telegraph. Matthews was charged with raping a female minor.
The official who spoke to The Telegraph said Matthews’ alleged crimes were committed in 1998 and 1999. The newspaper reported that he “strenuously denied the allegations”.
“The investigations will now continue as a judicial investigation and will be led by an investigating judge,” the official told The Telegraph, adding that he has been released from custody and has not been ordered to remain in France.
The son of a coal miner, Matthews worked his way up from mechanic to racing car driver. After a horrific crash at Britain’s Silverstone track in 1973, he retired and poured his efforts into his car showroom, which he sold in 1991 in favour of property development.
He then bought the Eden Roc hotel on the Caribbean island of St Barths, eventually building it into a glitzy, celeb-friendly haunt. However, the resort suffered extensive damage during Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
He and his second wife, the Zimbabwe-born Jane Parker, whom he married in the 1970s, divide their time between their two British estates: Caunton Manor, a 30-acre spread in Nottinghamshire, and Glen Affric, a 100,000-acre estate in Scotland.
Their eldest son James, 42, followed David into the racing car business before moving into securities trading. He married Middleton, 34, in a lavish May 2017 ceremony attended by her older sister, the Duchess Kate of Cambridge and her husband, Prince William, his brother Prince Harry and his future fiancée, American actress Meghan Markle, who attended the reception. Will and Kate’s children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, served as a page boy and flower girl in the ceremony.
Due to the hour at which the story broke, Kensington Palace, which represents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Matthews’ middle son, Michael, a derivatives trader, died at age 22 while descending Mount Everest in 1999, after becoming the youngest Briton to summit the world’s highest peak. The Matthews family created an education foundation in his memory.
Youngest son Spencer, 28, is a reality television star whose credits include Made in Chelsea, The Bachelor and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
Matthews also has a daughter, Nina, from his first marriage to fellow racing car driver Anita Taylor.
